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LIFE AND SPEECHES 



CF 



HAMILTON WARD 



1829-1898. 



r. .. •>V :W 



HAMILTON WARD, JR. 

1902. 



Press OF A. H. Morey, 
45 N. Division St., Buffalo, N. Y. 






P. 






.SS' <• ,• , 






PREFACE. 



For the better part of three years the preparation of my 
father's biography has occupied my spare moments and I 
feel myself viewing its completion with regret because the 
task has been a pleasant companion from whom I am loath 
to part. 

Much pleasanter, indeed, would it have been could we 
have ransacked attic and scrap-book, newspaper file and pub- 
lic document together in this work as I had hoped ; then the 
dry and disjointed array of facts which I have gathered 
would have glowed with his vigor, sparkled with his humor 
and told a story which would have described more correctly 
his active and eventful life. 

Nevertheless, as that was not to be, I have endeavored 
to set down from such scattered and in many cases unsatis- 
factory sources as I could command the following narrative 
which is written, not for wide publicity or in response to any 
public demand, but for the family and for the few old and 
dear friends who would take pleisaie ia recalling, through 
these pages, once farhiliar occiire-nees.' ■ '- - - ' 

And above all else it is written for the purpose of pre- 
serving in permanent form the record of a life whose every 
event and circumstance I love to remember. 

He was devoted to his home and village and much local 
history has crept in because it was so closely associated with 
him. 

I have set forth his speeches at much length for they 
were typical of him and grew with his growth; and the 
episodes of his congressional career will deepen with interest 



as the passing years teach us the true importance of that 
great period toward which the future will turn for precedent 
and inspiration. 

The Hendryx case is set out in full as it illustrates his 
industry and mastery of detail and the summing-up is, I be- 
lieve, a good example of forensic eloquence ; and I have gone 
at some length into the history of the Manhattan litigation 
as that was the greatest trial that ever befell my father and 
the test of a man is the way he meets adversity. 

I have not endeavored in the following pages to do 
much more than to set out his work and that, I fear, has been 
done imperfectly, as the personal knowledge possessed by 
myself and my brother, whose assistance in this matter has 
been of great value to me, extended over only the last ten 
years of his life; before that we were too young to know 
more than that he was our best friend and compan- 
ion ; that he was always just and absolutely without deceit or 
pretence. 

He counciled us in our boyish troubles, shared our 
secrets, furthered our plans, -taught, us bur sports and as we 
grew older we were ev^nc'loserto him; he entered with keen 
zest into oar studies. and rearrly .professional struggles and told 
us of his own pkn^ and efforts.-' He'was more than a parent, he 
was our inspiration, our advisor, our best friend, whose pleasure 
and approval were our highest aims, and upon whose judg- 
ment we implicitly relied. 

Genial, keen and vigorous his death seemed most un- 
timely; but he died at work with his natural powers un- 
abated and perhaps he would have had it so. 

He sleeps on the brow of a little hill to the west of the 
village of Belmont which for half a century was loyal to his 
fortunes and to whose every inhabitant he was a friend. 

HAMILTON WARD, JR. 
April 14, 1902. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. 
Family History. 

CHAPTER H. 
Boyhood 1829-1849. 

School days, page 7. 

CHAPTER HI. 
The Low Student. 

Description of Admission to the Bar, pages 13 to 17. Removal to Phil- 
lipsville, page IS. 

CHAPTER IV. 
TKe Yoxing' Lawyer. 

Encounter with Martin Grover, page 19. Letters from Phillipsville, 
pages 20 to 32. Journey to Tennessee, with sequel, pages 34 to 36. 
Incorporation of Village of Belmont, page 37. Marriage, page 38. 
Fourth of July Speech, pages 38 to 48. Town of Ward created, 
page 48. Election as District Attorney, page 48. Removal of 
County Seat from Angelica, page 49. Member of Military Com- 
mittee, page 50. First Congressional Nomination, page 53. Burn- 
ing of the Racine, page 55. 

CHAPTER V. 
In Congress. 

Fellow Members, page 58. First Resolutions, page 59. First Speech, 
page 60. Speech on Reconstruction, page 64. Relief of Ishmael 
Day, page 76. Appointment of E. W. Hatch to Anapolis, page 83. 
Elmira Speech, page 86. Thurlow Weed Episode, page 90. Sec- 
ond Congressional Nomination, page 102. Speech on Negro Suf- 
frage, page 104. Resolution of Thanks of the People of Baltimore, 
page 118. Speech on Impeachment, page 123. Second Speech on 
Reconstruction, page 134. Articles of Impeachment, page 142. 
Speech on Articles, page 153. Episode with Stanton, page 157. 
Letter on Result of Impeachment, page 166. Stebbins' Letter, 
page 171. Third Nomination to Congress, page 173. Beecher 
Episode, page 176. Proposed Amendment to the Constitution, 
page 185. Estimate of Blaine and Garfield, page 190. Agricultural 
Speech, page 191. Speech on Re-admisssion of Virginia, page 193. 
Speech on Polygamy, page 195. Speech on Income Tax, page 197. 
Speech on Naturalization, page 199, Withdraws from Contest for 
Fourth Nomination, page 201. 



CHAPTER VI. 
Civil Life 1871-1879. 

Syracuse Convention, page 206. Position as to Greeley, page 207. A 
Candidate for Justice to the Supreme Court, page 212. Hendrick's 
Case, page 214. Mackin Case, page 257. State Convention of '79, 
page 259. Nominated as Attorney General — Platform, page 260. 
Rome Speech, page 265. Incident of a Grateful Soldier, page 268. 

CHAPTER VH. 

Attorney-General. 

Appointees, page 271. Hughes Case, page 272. Dennison Case, page 
275. Hudson River Bridge Episode, page 281. Investigation Cost 
of State Capitol, page 281. Resignation of Conkling and Piatt, 
page 283. Cornell's Ingratitude to Conkling, page 291. Defeated 
for Renomination, page 294. Assassination of Garfield, page 298. 
Manhattan Railway Litigation, page 299. Roosevelt Resolution, 
page 314. Hearing before Judicial Committee, page 321. Vindica- 
tion, page 324. 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Law and Politics 1882-1890. 

Torpedo Cases, page 328. Again a Candidate for Justice, page 331. 
Speech on Blaine, page 333. Bath Decoration Day Speech, page 
336. Baldwin-Fassett Campaign, page 337. Harrison-Platt Epi- 
sode, page 338. Whitney Case, page 340. Judicial Contest, page 
347. Constitutional Commission, page 348. Congressional Con- 
test, 1890, page 355. Old Friends, page 357. Reynolds on Law 
Practice, page 359. Davis Personal Reminiscence, page 361. Ap- 
pointment as Justice of the Supreme Court, page 363. Action of 
the Senate on Confirmation, page 369. 

CPIAPTER IX. 

On tKe BencK. 

First Courts, page 372. Judicial Nomination, page 375. Pass Episode, 
page 381. Decisions at Circuit and Special Term, page 386. 
Charge to the Grand Jury, page 387. Anecdotes, page 392. Ap- 
pointment to the General Term, page 394. Appointment to the 
Appellate Division, page 397. Letter from D. B. Hill, page 399. 
Speech at Almond Centennial, page 400. Kerr Case, page 402. 
Wadsworth Case, page 405. Allen Case, page 405. Mahany Let- 
ter, page 407. 

CHAPTER X. 

His DeatK. 

Newspaper Comment, page 412. Remarks by Judge Norton, page 414. 
Remarks by Elba Reynolds, page 416. Comments by St. Clair Mc- 
Kelway, page 418. Funeral Services, page 422. Bar Association 
Resolutions, page 425. Resolution of Appellate Division, page 427. 
Resolution of Rochester Bar, page 429. 



CHAPTER I. 



Family History. 



In the year 1879, Hamilton Ward was "stumping" the 
State of New York as a candidate for Attorney-General, 
and on the 9th day of October, of that year, was in Boon- 
ville, Oneida County, N. Y., where he delivered an address. 
After the speech he was asked by a young man present to 
go to call on James Ward, who the young man said, desired 
to see him. He did as requested, and found an old man over 
ninety years of age, who mformed him that he was his great 
uncle, and from his lips he took down the history of the 
family in America, which is as follows : 

"My grandfather's given name was Peter. He was born 
near the line that divides England and Scotland, on the Scot- 
tish side. He was part Scotch and part Irish. He came to 
this country before the Revolution, and settled in what was 
called Long Pond, N. J., about thirty miles from New York 
City. He was a farmer. His son, my father's given name 
was also Peter. He was bound out to a tanner. He was a 
large man with black hair and dark blue eyes. He was a 
very active man. He was born at Long Pond, now Ring- 
wood. He was all through the Revolutionary War. He 
entered as a private and was promoted to captain for merit. 
He died in 181 2, aged fifty-seven. He settled in Camp Gaw, 
N. J., right after the Revolutionary War. He was a great 
politician and a Federalist. He was a member of the Senate 
and Assembly of New Jersey for twenty years — most of the 
time in the Senate. He had a good farm. 

My mother's maiden name was Nancy Mead. She was 
born in Holland. Her father's name was John Mead, who 
emigrated from Holland before his daughter's marriage, and 
settled in Camp Gaw. My parents had five sons. Peter, the 
oldest, John, Thomas, James (myself) and William, and 
three daughters, Jane, Catherine and Mary. 



2 HAMILTON WARD. 

Peter was born at Camp Gaw, When he was married 
he settled there. He had a farm of a hundred acres and a 
distillery, and was doing a good business. He was three 
months in the war of 1812. He was brigade major of the mil- 
itia, and was stationed at the Narrows. In the flush times, 
during the war, he bought property at high prices, and it 
ruined him. He made an assignment of his property to his 
brother, and moved to this place (Boonville). Losses and 
troubles made him deranged and he wandered off, his family 
knows not where, and died on Long Island. He was a very 
smart man. Short in stature with black hair and eyes. He 
was a great politician and like his father a Federalist. 

My sister married Isaac Bogart of Camp Gaw. 

Catherine married Stephen Sloat of Sloatsburg, N. Y. 

Mary married Abram Dater of Rockland County, N. Y, 

Nothing- is known of the family prior to its emigration. 
The records of the State of New Jersey show that Captain 
Peter Ward was appointed a recruiting officer for Bergen 
County in 1781, and was captain in the State Militia during 
the Revolutionary War. That he was a Captain of Light 
Horse in Major Hayes' Batallion of State Troops is set forth 
in a book entitled "Oflicers and Men of New Jersey in Revo- 
lutionary War," compiled by William Styker. He was born 
in 1755 at Ringwood, N. J., and died at Camp Gaw% March 
15th, 181 2. His wife, Nancy Mead, was born in Holland in 
1763, and died at Camp Gaw, May i6th, 1806. 

Concerning the history of the other children no infor- 
mation is at hand, and this chapter will concern itself princi- 
pally with the immediate stock of Hamilton Ward. 

Peter Ward, the eldest son referred to in the statement 
of Tames Ward, was born at Camp Gaw, in 1781, and mar- 
ried Maria Colfax in the year 1802. She was the daughter 
of Robert Colfax, and niece of George William Colfax and 
second cousin of Vice-President Schuyler Colfax. Major 
Peter Ward served under General William Colfax in the war 
of 181 2, and was stationed at Bergen Heights and Sandy 
Hook. 

Peter Ward and Maria Colfax had twelve children, of 
v.^hich the oldest was Robert Colfax Avery, born in 1803, 



FAMILY HISTORY. 3 

and the second, Peter Hamilton, born at Camp Gaw, N. J., 
Sept. 24tli, 1804, the middle name being given contrary to 
the family custom in honor of Alexander Hamilton, of whom 
the father and grandfather had been warm admirers, and 
family tradition says, although there is no documentary 
proof, that Major Peter Ward was present at the famous 
duel between Hamilton and Burr. There w'as one other 
son, John Jacob, and nine daughters, Sarah Ann, Harriett 
Colfax, Jane, Mary, Catherine SI oat, Lucy Prince, Peyrna, 
Maria Colfax and Elizabeth Salter. Neither Robert nor 
John left sons. 

Peter Plamilton Ward had an only son, Hamilton, who 
is the subject of this book. 

Owing to the reverses of Major Peter Ward, referred 
to in the statement of James Ward, the family removed to 
Oneida County, N. Y., in 1819, then almost a wilderness, and 
took up the battle of life as pioneers. 

In 1828 Peter Plamilton Ward married at Saulsbury, 
Herkimer County, New York, Eliza Cleveland, who was the 
daughter of Daniel Cleveland, and was born Nov. 27, 1811, 
and on July 3rd, 1829, their first child, Hamilton Ward, was 
born, at Saulsbury, on the farm where Peter Hamilton Ward 
then resided. 

When Hamilton Ward was five years of age the family 
removed to Green Spring Plantation, near old Jamestown, 
in James City County, in the State of Virginia. This plan- 
tation was owned by Robert and John Ward, who had be- 
come men of some property, and who also owned a line of 
schooners which ran from the plantation and other ports in 
Virginia to New York City; it was sold by Robert in 1886. 
There w^as also a considerable number of slaves owned by 
the brothers. 

Green Spring was a historic spot. It had been the 
home of Sir William Berkely, the bloody royal Governor of 
Virginia, and of a number of his successors. Famous men 
of the Colonial period were buried there, and the great brick 
house had seen many a gay concourse and grave assembly of 
men and women who made the early history of this people. 
Old Jamestown was but four miles distant, and Williamsburg 



4 HAMILTON WARD. 

but eight miles. It was one of the first and best plantations 
of the colony and contained three thousand acres. The 
irony of fate has recently located upon the site of old Sir 
William's house a postoffice called Bacon, after the man who 
so successfully resisted the Governor's authority and con- 
ducted the famous Bacon Rebellion. 

The silent and historic places, the solemn forests, the 
great lonely river left an indelible impression on the boy's 
youthful fancy. He learned, too, to love the sea and often 
sailed to and from New York on his uncle's schooners, and 
he gathered from the negroes around him the songs of the 
South, which he always remembered. 

Four years later the family removed to the County of 
Chemung, in the State of New York, where Peter Hamilton 
purchased a farm about a mile west of the village of Horse- 
heads, and remained there until 1849, when he returned to 
Virginia, and again took up his residence on the Green 
Spring Plantation. His wife, Eliza Cleveland, died on the 
5th day of December, 1849, and was buried on the Powhat- 
ten Plantation, in a private burying ground in James City 
County, near old Jamestown. She left one other child be- 
sides Hamilton, a daughter, Harriett Elizabeth, born Janu- 
ary 23rd, 1838. 

Eliza Cleveland's grave is marked with a marble head 
and foot stone, upon which her name is inscribed. The plan- 
tation on which it is located is about seven miles southwest 
of Williamsburg, and was formerly owned by Dr. Martin. 

It is now the property of Charles E. Dean, of Williams- 
burg. An iron fence has recently been erected about the 
grave. 

Eliza Cleveland was a woman of most sweet and lovable 
disposition. The early papers and journals of Hamilton 
W^ard are full of tender remembrances of her. 

Peter Hamilton sold his Horseheads farm in 1853 and 
removed to Belmont, N. Y.. in 1859. There he purchased 
a farm about two miles outside of the village, and remained 
there with his son in the village until 1867 when, having 
sold his farm, he removed to a farm owned by Mary Adelia 
Chamberlain, the wife of Hamilton Ward, in Waterloo, 
N. Y. He worked this farm until his death, which occurred 



FAMILY HISTORY. 5 

on May 4th, 1880. He is buried in the "New Cemetery" in 
Waterloo, N. Y., and his grave is marked with a headstone. 
His daughter, Harriett Elizabeth, never married. She re- 
sided with him up to the time of his death, and then went to 
live in New York City with a niece of her mother's, Mrs. 
Eliza Angevine, where she still is. 

Peter Hamilton Ward was a careful, industrious and ex- 
tremely conscientious man. He was a member of the Epis- 
copal Church, and a Whig in politics. When the Whig 
party went to pieces he became a Democrat, and remained 
such until the time of his death. So strong were his party 
convictions that on one occasion when his son was a can- 
didate for Congress, he accompanied him to the polls, and 
cast his vote for his adversary. 

He was known for his fair dealings and honest, kindly 
heart, and all those who recall him do so with pleasure. He 
never accumulated much property nor does it appear that 
he ever cared for it. After his wife's death he was for a time 
shattered in health, but his later years found him active and 
useful. 

The deepest affection always existed between him and 
his son, as is shown by the letters which they exchanged and 
the references to him in his son's journal. 

He was opposed to his son's course in actively partici- 
pating in politics, and when his son informed him that he 
intended to leave the farm and study law he replied that "he 
had hoped that his only son would be an honest man." To 
do right and be just was his highest ambition and as near as 
possible he attained to it. 



CHAPTER 11. 

BoyKood. 1829 to 1849. 

Hamilton Ward was born in Saulsbury, N. Y., on the 
3rd day of July, 1829, 

His mother was a woman of intelligence and force of 
character, and he received from her most of his early educa- 
tion. 

When he was five years of age the family removed to 
Green Spring Plantation, on the James River, near old 
Jamestown, in Virginia, and remained there four years. 

While in Virginia he attended a private school, where 
he boarded ; however most of the recollections he had of that 
period of his life were of negroes on the plantation, their 
songs and customs, and of the schooners which his uncles 
owned, and which conveyed to New York wood cut by the 
slaves. On these schooners the boy often sailed, and in the 
heat of the summer the family sometimes returned on them 
to Camp Gaw, N. J., where relatives resided. 

In 1838 the family removed to Horseheads, in Chemung 
County, and there Hamilton Ward attended the public 
schools of the village of Horseheads, near the city of El- 
mira. Most of the old schoolmates and friends are dead, 
and but little data remains which will throw light on his boy- 
hood. 

Benjamin Marriott, now of Corning, N. Y., lived on the 
next farm. He says that Hamilton and himself attended 
school at Horseheads during the winter months until his 
father, mother and sister removed to Virginia again, when 
he went to school for one winter in New York City. Mar- 
riott says: 

"As a pupil Hamilton was always at the head of his 
class. He was fond of debating, and was regarded as one of 
the best in the school. In his youth he was an ardent Whig, 



BOYHOOD, 1829 TO 1849. 7 

and at the age of nineteen years he was engaged by the Whig 
County Committee to deliver political speeches at points 
within the county during the Presidential Campaign. Many 
dark and stormy nights 1 have gone with him to some little 
school house wliere he would deliver a political speech, and 
we would arrive home during the small hours of the morn- 
ing. He always gave satisfaction to the Committee and to 
his party, who listened to him, and acquitted himself with 
credit. He was firm in his convictions, and always stood by 
what seemed to him to be right." 

JMarriott further says that when the old Whig party 
broke up, and Hamilton became a Republican, it was in op- 
position to his father's wishes, who sympathized with the 
Democratic party on account of his pro-slavery views, own- 
ing as he did at that time, in connection with his brothers 
John and Robert, many negroes on the Green Spring Plan- 
tation, and that many arguments occurred between father 
and son on the subject of slavery. 

In the Blossburg Industrial Register, under date of July 
31st, 1879. appears an article on the class of 1847-48, which 
met in Old Masonic Hall in Horseheads, under Prof. W. S. 
Minier, who later became a Circuit Court Judge in the State 
of Oregon ; in which the name of Hamilton Ward appears 
as a member of the class. There was also a teacher in rhet- 
oric to whom Hamilton paid much attention and whom he 
'frequently recalled — an absent minded old gentleman whose 
head was filled with declamations, which he constantly re- 
peated. It was his custom to call every Sunday night on a 
certain maiden lady and tie his horse to a post in front of 
the house. On coming out he always walked home leading 
his horse, reciting aloud. To test his absent mindedness on 
one occasion Plamilton and other boys of the school re- 
moved the horse, and as the tale goes, the old man dragged 
the bridle home unconscious of the fact that the horse vras 
not attached to it. 

Hamilton's first attempts to make public speeches were 
opposed by his father, who was a quiet man and cared little 
for such things, and he has often spoken of a certain occa- 
sion upon which he was invited to address a Whig meetin.';]: 



8 HAMILTON WARD. 

in the then flourishing village of Elmira. He was called for 
by the Committee of Citizens in a carriage. They inquired 
for Mr. W^ard, and his father went out to meet them. They 
said they wanted the Mr. Ward who was going to make a 
speech that night, and the old gentleman replied that there 
was no such person, and that his boy, who was the only other 
one of the name in the neighborhood, was in bed. The car- 
riage drove off, but Hamilton dodged his father, caught up 
with it, and attended the meeting. 

He had a full beard at nineteen, and was several times 
sent as a delegate to conventions before he was of age. 

It does not appear that he traveled much, except that 
he made several journeys to and from Virginia and to and 
from the city of New York and points in New Jersey, where 
his relatives were living. He attended school in the city of 
New York the winter of 1847-48, and boarded with his aunt, 
Elizabeth Lydecker — the study which most interested him 
being rhetoric. As a boy he was very fond of poetry and 
history and there is still in existence his much thumbed and 
marked copy of Lord Byron's poems. He often went into 
the woods to deliver speeches, and the neighbors' boys used 
to follow him and listen, and when discovered a fight would 
immediately pursue. 

The haymow w^as his favorite study, and there he kept 
some of his books. The barn on his father's farm was an old 
fashioned one, with doors opening on both sides through 
which the wagon loads of grain and hay could be driven. It 
is said that on one occasion wdien he was driving a load of 
grain into the barn to be unloaded he became so interested 
in a discourse which he was delivering to an imaginary audi- 
ence, that he drove through the barn and back into the fields 
again with his full load, where his more prosaic father 
promptly recalled him to his duty. He was an intense lover 
of nature, a trait which he always retained, and the daily 
phenomena of heaven and earth seemed to him an endless 
source of wonder and beauty. 

He was subject at times to depression, and, especially 
after his mother's death, he would wander in the fields and 
woods, seeking comfort and consolation from their solitude. 



CHAPTER III. 

TKe La-w Student. 

In the spring of 1849 Peter Hamilton removed with his 
family to Virginia, leaving young Hamilton alone on the 
farm, which he worked during that summer and fall. 

In the fall he resolved to carry out his cherished ambi- 
tion, and entered the law office of Aaron & W. P. Konkle 
of Elmira, N. Y., as a student, boarding in the city and main- 
taining himself chiefly from the proceeds of the farm. 

Here he was elected Secretary of the Lyceum, or de- 
bating society and frequently spoke in public on temperance, 
and other subjects, discussed at that time. 

The law students of the city, of whom there seems to 
have been a considerable number, formed a class wdiere all 
assembled almost daily and studied and discussed some par- 
ticular legal question. 

In March, 1850, Hamilton began to keep a journal, and 
from this many interesting facts are drawn. 

A typical day is as follows : 

March 26th, Tuesday. 
I arose at seven. Breakfast at eight. Shaved. Went 
to the recitation room at nine. Spent two hours w4th the 
class. Had some warm discusisons in the class upon law 
topics. Went to the office at eleven. Read some portions 
of last evening's Tribune in reference to the trial of Dr. 
Webster for murder. Returned to my boarding place at 
twelve. Read thirteen pages of the law. Dinner at half 
past one. Started for the office. Arrived there at 2 P. M. 
Read thirty pages of Greenleaf on Evidence, referring to the 
best of evidence and hearsay evidence. Conversed some 
with a Mr, Lawrence upon the respective merits of a protec- 
tive and revenue tariff. Conversed some with W, P. Konkle. 
Esq., upon the effects of certain kinds of diet upon the sys- 
tem. Came to the conclusion that the taking of animal food 



10 HAMILTON WARD. 

into the system of an individual that exercises but little is in- 
jurious. Conversed with G. A. Burk about the political as- 
pect of the Union. Disagreed with him somewhat in opinion. 
Returned to my boarding place at six in the evening, re- 
turned to my studies ; supped at seven. Read fifteen pages 
of the Common Law of England relative to the injuries to 
personal and real property. Settled up an account between 
myself and G. R. Posts. Read a number of pages in Gib- 
bons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Felt very 
much fatigued during the evening. Retired at ii o'clock." 

To his fresh, strong mind everything was new and in- 
teresting, and each event made its impression, and above 
everything else, the high ambition to improve himself is con- 
stantly manifested. 

On March 30th he writes of a conversation with a friend 
''about the evil effects of mingling too much in the society 
of the gay,'' and on March 22nd he says "spent the day with- 
out much study or improvement, which I very much regret." 

He took long walks in the fields, and by the river, and 
on April 3rd, in speaking of a walk on Charles Island in the 
Chemung River, says: "I made to the age-marked trees 
and rushing waters a speech upon the influence of natural 
scenery upon the mind." 

Of high hope and lively imagination, he experienced 
frequent depressions of spirit, and on April 7th he writes: 
''The world looks dark and ominous, the waters of my 
destiny seemed to be fouled, the starlight of hope died away 
in my soul. The prospect before me was a bleak and cheer- 
less void. I felt friendless and alone. I knew that no kind 
hearts were beating for me, but the troubled one of my 
father, and that of my dark eyed sister, and they were far 
away. I tried to read but could not. The thrill of misan- 
throphy curdled my blood, dark disgust for men was para- 
mount in my breast. I threw me on my couch at 12 o'clock ; 
in dreams I visited the grave of my mother and poured my 
troubles upon that lonely consecrated spot." 

Frequent tender references are found to his mother, 
whose memory comforted him when depressed. 

On May nth it appears that a circus visited Elmira, 



THE LAW STUDENT. 11 

which he attended both afternoon and evening, returning 
home "with the bitter conviction of having misspent the 
day." 

He occasionally wrote verses but they have not been 
preserved. 

The authors most frequently mentioned which he 
studied were Byron and Shakespeare. 

On June 14th he resolved upon the following system: 
"To arise in the morning at least by 6 o'clock, to read dur- 
ing the day, besides my writing and other business, at least 
40 pages of the elementary law. To note down the principal 
facts contained in my reading lesson. To read at least ten 
pages of law in the evening and take notes of the same, and 
to transcribe the substance of the notes upon my common- 
place book and not retire until midnight or after. To ab- 
stain from the use of cigars, and to eat but little animal 
food." 

Elmira was not a large place, but even at this time con- 
tained the germs of that activity which has since made it the 
"home of statesmen." One of the newspapers was called 
the Republican, and on Aug. 26th it is recorded that Hamil- 
ton Ward wrote an article for this paper, entitled: "The 
star of Empire westward takes its way." 

In August and September, Peter Hamilton returned 
•from the South, and during those months w^as engaged with 
his son in gathering the crops from the farm at Horseheads. 

On Sept. 17th a momentous event was recorded — The 
first client appeared, charged by the trustees of the village 
with selling liquor. He w^as defended by the young law stu- 
dent — with what result is not known. After this there wms 
an occasional client. 

On Sept. 21, 1850, he was a candidate for delegate to 
the State Convention at the County Convention held at the 
village of Horseheads. He w^as defeated but was elected a 
delegate to the Congressional Convention. On the day be- 
fore this he w'as evidently engaged "in fixing his fences." 
and remarks in the journal that "he spent the afternoon in 
running around and looking at folks as big fools as myself." 

He made some speeches for the Whig Ticket during the 



12 HAMILTON WARD. 

fall, and the journal passes to the month of March, 185 1. 
The period passed over is reviewed March the nth as fol- 
lows: 

"The winter of 1850 and 185 1 has been spent studiously 
and profitably. I have spent less time at my books than I am 
wont to do during that period, but have learned as fast as I 
otherwise should have done, had I studied more and re- 
created less. I have been as much a recluse as ever but have 
settled my mind upon my business more, enlarged the sphere 
of my reflection and observation, thoughtless of paltry 
triumphs, and the fleeting vanities which so much gratify a 
boy's ambition. I have spoken less than perhaps I ought 
during that time. Have given no public lectures or ad- 
dresses, and participated in but few debates. My limited 
knowledge of the law has enlarged considerably, much that 
was then dark and intricate now appears plain and consist- 
ent. I have practiced a little in a Justice Court during that 
time, but only enough to convince me of my utter incompet- 
ency to practice, yet, with credit to myself and justice to my 
client." 

On April ist he worked all day at the polls for the un- 
successful Whig ticket and says ; "It was all fool's day and I 
was as big a fool as any, time, money and happiness all spent 
to gratify a mushroom enthusiasm and the grasping spirits 
of ambitious partisans — folly — folly." 

As the journal proceeds an improvement in the style is 
manifest, an undoubted result of unremitting effort with 
voice and pen. During this winter and the last it was fre- 
quently recorded that his health was not good, attributable 
probably to his hard work, late hours and lack of accustomed 
exercise. 

During the summer the journal was abandoned, but on 
September 21st, 1851, appears the following, which best tells 
its own tale: 

Sunday, September 21st, 1851. 

I open again the journal of my life. I have had it shut 
too long. Some of the most important events of my life 
have transpired since I closed its pages that only exist now 
in the memory of the past, and stand unrecorded except in 



THE LAW STUDENT. 13 

the great judgment book of the Eternal. To others, intent 
upon their schemes of hfe and ambition, the history of a 
poor, friendless individual like myself, would be of but little 
interest — it would be but to them a simple rehearsal of the 
experience, hopes, fears, thoughts, emotions and sentiments 
of one of many millions that float along the tide of life to- 
gether to that final terminus — the Grave. But to me it is 
pregnant with the deepest interests. Every event recorded 
there stands out in bold relief as a monument of bygone 
days, recalling some cherished memory and hallowed inci- 
dent which in the hustle and distractions of the world had 
being veiled beneath the pall of forgetfulness, but reappear 
when events of co-temperanous date are recalled; by the 
principle of association. 

Each man's life is a volume of itself, of great importance 
to his soul and fervid interest to himself, a book of destiny 
containing instructions vast, and lessons deep. Whoever 
the man may be, high or low, rich or poor, elevated or de- 
based, his history is worth perusing, at least by himself. It 
is human nature that is written there. The voice, the heart, 
is heard in every transaction. The working of human sym- 
pathies, love, hate, ambition, insatiable desires that haunt the 
heart and disturb the pillow, the ever recurring circum- 
stances which please or annoy, the constant longings after 
change, and a betterment of our condition, which are com- 
mon to us all, are written there. It is chiefly interesting be- 
cause it is a truthful delineation of life, written down with 
an active and trembling hand, often when the heart is tu- 
multous with excitement and the strongest feeling of our 
nature are in the ascendant. It is no cold preparation for 
the public, it is not cut and garbled and robbed of its beauty, 
warmth and simplicity to gratify the fastidious eye of criti- 
cism. 

I have had many changes and experienced much since I 
deserted my journal, more than three months have sought 
the misty vault of past ages since that time, and as I look 
back upon that period how speedily it seems to have fled, 



14 HAMILTON WARD. 

but in that short time I mark a long array of broken reso- 
lutions, foolish resolves, follies, inconsistencies and faults. 
The ghost of misspent time emerges with upbraiding feat- 
ures and dusty vestment from the shadows of oblivion, 
precious hours that might have stored my mind with wealth 
of an immortal hue have fled past me forever. There is no 
recalling it, they are gone "Glimmering among the dream of 
things that were, a school boy's tale, the w^onder of an hour." 
I will not lament over the past but aim to do better in the 
future. Regrets are only useful so far as they serve to in- 
struct us and warn us against pursuing a similar course in 
future. I will write my experience dow'n every day. I will 
waste no more time foolishly in politics. 

Since I left you, my dear journal, some things of re- 
markable interest have transpired. I commenced studying 
desperately on the ist of May, 1851, night and day I bent 
constantly over my books, severe was my toil, but great the 
objects I had in view. I expected to be examined for ad- 
mission to the bar early in July. I deserted society and 
shut myself up in solitude and silence, away from the clamor 
of the world, my exercise I took ere the sun peeped above 
the eastern hills, and when King Morpheus reigned over 
the senses and energies of the world. Nothing of interest or 
note transpired to break the dullness and monotony of my 
study. Night succeeded morning and day after day stalked 
into the oblivious vault of the past until the last suns of June 
warned me that the fierce and long dreaded ordeal was at 
hand. I had studied but eighteen months and of course felt 
illy prepared to meet the searching eye of legal criticism, 
and station myself in those learned and swarming ranks of 
forensic power, that overshadowed the land and struggle 
fiercely with each other for the mastery. 

On Monday, the 30th of June, I took my departure from 
Elmira to Cooperstown, Otsego County, where the General 
Term of the Supreme Court would sit next day. After a 
pleasant journey I arrived at Cooperstown at i o'clock P. M. 
on the day of my examination. It w^as a lovely day and a 
long ride of twenty-six miles on a fine plank road and nine 
miles of the distance besides Otsego Lake, as beautiful a 



THE LAW STUDENT. 15 

sheet of water as one would like to see, had much refreshed 
me. I went straightway to the Court House and found that 
we were to be examined at 5 P. M. of that day. I exercised 
until the time came by walking, running, riding, and with a 
fine companion cheered and excited my spirits. When the 
time came I hastened with a nervous tread and beating heart 
to the place appointed. As I entered the Court House and 
saw it crowded with all classes of men awaiting the examina- 
tion, the bar filled with the learned and dignified of the pro- 
fession, the bench occupied by three judges, looking as 
solemn and awful as a Roman Senate, and my companions 
in distress arranged like so many culprits on a fine of chairs 
stretching from one side of the bar to the other, and faced 
by three dignified examiners who looked all sort of wis- 
dom at the shrinking wretches before them, my heart shrank 
into a little measure, the animal energy my exercise had 
aroused fled from my limbs and I sunk with a sensation of 
faintness into a seat afTorded to me by the humane and gen- 
tlemanly clerk of the Court, Mr. North, I believe his name 
\vas. 

The examination soon commenced and the first ques- 
tion asked me was one on the practice, which I knew per- 
fectly well, but was so embarrassed that I blundered over it 
shamefully, but at last got right, the next I got right after a 
great deal of difficulty, and the next I missed ; at length the 
Judges took hold of it and got it in a department of law I 
was perfectly at home in. and then I did admirably. I an- 
swered two questions that w^ent all around the class, recov- 
ered my confidence and self-command and went far to re- 
trieve the character I had lost in the outset. I got through 
after an examination of three hours in length, satisfied that I 
had done as well as most of the class. The Court broke up 
and we repaired to the tea table, where we relished an excel- 
lent supper. 

That night I could not sleep. The Judges informed us 
they would announce their decision as to what they would 
do with us in the morning, so I was cast upon a sea of un- 
certainty and speculation as to what my destiny would be. 



16 HAMILTON WARD. 

I was too nervous and excited to seek repose, so beneath 
the sweet, mellow, harvest moon I strolled down to the 
beach, where the solitary waters of the sweet lake were dash- 
ing melodiously. A light bark was heaving on the gentle 
swell nearby. I obtained permission to use it of its owner, 
and soon with paddle in hand was skimming over the glassy 
surface of the lake with the swiftness of the arrow. 

I soon found myself, as I judged, a mile from shore, and 
sitting down in my boat, my paddle thrown by my side, I 
gave myself up to thought, of strange and mingled charac- 
ter. The night was so pure and beautiful, the sky was so 
calm and cloudless, the air so sweet and balmy, the flow of 
the waters around me so soothing to my heated brain that I 
fell into a soft and delicious reverie, not deep enough to pre- 
clude stern reflections, nor stupifying enough to sweep away 
the ascendancy of reason, but sufficient to send a halo and a 
glow and beauty to the sternest realities of life ; like all 
young men my thoughts wandered to the future and the 
long array of years that stretched out before me, and like the 
ever varying landscape a sunset first gloomy in the full blaze 
of the vanishing illumination, then darkened by the gather- 
ing shadows of night, so looked my future prospects, at one 
time bright and beautiful, beckoning me on to a glorious 
destiny, where bright and happy ones awaited and warm and 
generous friends extended to me the hand of friendship and 
of love. And again it would look sad and dreary, cold, dark 
and unhospitable, and a sensation of solitude and gloom 
would creep over me, and as I sat alone in my frail bark, re- 
mote from humanity and love, with nothing to keep me from 
the depths below, but a little tiny bark, so I was alone in the 
world, poor and friendless, disconnected from society, with 
but half-got learning to secure me the necessities of life ; 
those bound to me by the ties of blood were away, dead or 
cold and neglectful, the home of my youth was broken up, 
its sacred halls were desolate, the companions of my youth 
had all started out in different directions upon the great 
journey of life, and I, awaiting my fate at the hands of three 
stern men who knew nothing nor cared nothing for my situa- 
tion, thoughts and reflections. 



THE LAW STUDENT. 17 

For hours 1 sat upon the bosom of the waters, watching 
the gentle ripples that flashed about the bow of my Httle 
craft, and the stars as they twinkled in the broad blue curtain 
that shut out heaven appearing and fading by turns as 
though swayed by the wand of a mighty enchanter whose 
throne was the vault of night, and the full moon careening 
over wave and woodland, lake and hillside and valley; her 
impress was in the water by my side, her ray was glistening 
on the mountain top, dim in the distance, piercing into dells 
misty and ravines deep and solitude profound. 

The morning gray dawned upon me and I had drifted 
several miles from shore. I aroused myself and paddled 
back with a keen appetite and vacant eye. At eight A. M. 
we again repaired to the Court House to learn our fate. 
The Judges were there. I took my seat and in a moment 
a deep voice issued from the bench, saying "Hamilton Ward 
will step forward and take the required oath." I did it. The 
oath was administered to support the National and State 
Constitutions and to maintain the dignity and purety of the 
profession of the law ; it was done. I withdrev»r with bound- 
ing heart and in silence. I was thenceforth a member of the 
bar. That day I started for New York, arrived at Albany 
that evening, stopped at the Delevan House and remained 
there until the 3rd of July, 1851, which was the anniversary 
of my birth. 1 was then twent)'^-two years of age. I spent 
the day in the Legislature, which was in extra session. My 
friend, reporter Perkins, gave me an excellent seat and 
showed me many kindnesses which I shall always recollect 
v.ith gratitude and pride. That night I embarked on board 
the beautiful steamer Isaac Newton for New York City. 
Procured a state room, and after a splendid night's rest upon 
the breast of the unrivaled Hudson found myself landed in 
the city on the morning of the 4th of July, that day so dear 
to the hearts of freemen, so consecrated in the annals of 
American history. Amid the thundering of artillery, the 
roar of the mighty population, alive with interest and pa- 
triotism and the rush of men, I threaded my way as far as 88 
Varrick Street, and pulled the bell, was issued into a neat 



18 HAMILTON WAKD. 

little parlor and in a moment was clasped in the arms of my 
sweet and gentle sister, the only one God ever gave me, with 
her dark braids falling over my shoulder, and her warm 
kisses on my cheek. Dear girl, how I love her. I hope her 
future path will be strewn with flowers. 1 spent a week in 
iny journey, and returned home on the 8th of July. I then 
commenced looking about me to obtain a place to settle in 
and at last fixed my eye upon a little village in the County 
of Allegany, State of New York, and named Phillipsville. It 
was a place containing 6oo inhabitants, with vast natural re- 
sources and a fine prospect ahead ; there was no other lawyer 
ihere, so after considerable preparation on Friday, the 29th 
day of August, 1851, I landed at my new home, and on the 
Monday following opened an oflice in that place. I have 
been here now for more than three weeks, have had little 
10 do, like the people very well, think I shall have more busi- 
ness by and by, employ my time in reading and fitting myself 
for business, if I ever get any. The society is small but good. 
T get the blues sometimes, but shake them off. Had a visit 
from my dear father, who spent a week with me. God bless 
my father. 

So my dear journal I have endeavored to give you a 
slight sketch of what I have been doing since I left you and 
in future T will keep you posted as to my whereabouts." 

The County Court House of Allegany County stands 
on a knoll in the center of the village of Belmont, formerly 
Phillippsville, and when Hamilton Ward came to Phillipps- 
ville, at the point where the steps of the Court House now 
are. a great pine stump stood. Upon this stump he climbed, 
and looking over the beautiful valley to the north and south 
of him, decided to remain, and when the Court House was 
built he persuaded the Commissioners to locate the steps on 
the spot occupied by this stump. 



CHAPTER IV. 



TKe "Yoxing La-wyer. 

The first client that came to the young lawyer was Rob- 
ert Tucker, at that time a man of some property, who re- 
sided near the village. Some dreary days had gone by. 
There seemed to be no business. He had but little money 
left and one afternoon he resolved to return to Elmira. His 
books were packed, and he was sadly contemplting the few 
empty shelves when Tucker came in, gave him a note to sue, 
and v^hat was more important, hope for the future. 

Mr. \Vard has often told of his first action in a Court 
of Record. This was on a note signed "Wm" and many 
anxious days were spent in trying to decide whether to sue 
the defendant as "Wm" or "William." 

Angelica at this time was the county seat, the home of 
most of the bar, and the center of political influence. Here 
resided the famous Martin Grover, afterwards a Judge of the 
Court of Appeals, and as well known for his disregard of his 
personal appearance as for his legal ability. At this time he 
was the leader of the bar and did much of the business. 
When Mr. Ward attended his first court in Angelica he sat 
inside the rail with the other attorneys. He saw a dirty, 
ragged man with a tobacco stained face come in, and to his 
surprise take a seat beside him. The stranger placed a 
grimy hand on his knee, and in a nasal voice said: ''Young 
man who be you?" Proud of his new position as an attor- 
ney, and conscious of the dignity that the only suit of "store 
clothes" in the Court Room leant him, Mr. Ward intimated 
that it was none of the stranger's business. Whereupon 
great consternation fell upon the attorneys present; Mr. 
Ward was speedily informed of his mistake, but Grover was 
unforgiving, and for years some feeling existed between the 
two men, and when finally in 1858 the county seat was re- 
moved to Belmont to some extent through Mr. Ward's 
efifcrts. Grover p.lwavs sr)oke of him as the "red headed ban- 



20 HAMILTON WARD. 

tarn from the Burg," referring to his abundant red hair and 
beard, and his stature, which was 5 ft. 6 in., his weight being 
about 130 pounds. 

Mr. Ward's warmest friends while in Ehnira were 
Charles G. Fairman (afterwards editor and proprietor of the 
Elmira Advertiser) and C. Boardman Smith, who succeeded 
him in Congress and afterwards became a Justice of the 
Supreme Court. 

During the year 1851 Mr, Ward wrote a series of five 
letters to Fairman, then on the Elmira Daily Reporter, de- 
scribing Phillipsville, his experience and impressions. The 
letters explain themselves, and are as follows : 

Letters from Phillipsville — No. 1. 

THE JAUNT. 

Dear Charley — It was on a dull, foggy morning, in the latter part of 
August, 1851, that a young man, diminutive in size, and with a dejected 
air, was seen wending his way to the railroad depot in Elmira. He waa 
tolerably well burdened with luggage, and frequently heaved a heavy sigh, 
wblch one would hardly know whether to attribute to his load or his 
thoughts. 

Strange thoughts were passing through his mind, as he threaded his 
way, regardless of what was passing around him. He was embarking into 
a new and untried course of life — among strangers with whom he felt no 
kindred feelings and sympathies. He was leaving the home and associa- 
tions of his youth, which time had taught him to regard with peculiar affec- 
tion every object that he passed, and every countenance he beheld. 

He felt a little nervous withal; and as the announcement of railroad 
importance burst upon his ear, a something like a shudder passed over him, 
and the future suddenly turned grey and dim before his excited vision, and 
tlie strong resolution he had taken to rend asunder the ties that bound him 
to the home of his childhood, were momentarily shaken. But no time was 
loft for regrets; none for retraction. The "Iron Horse" was stamping, paw- 
ing and whinning vociferously — he could not retract if he wished. And the 
impatient pawing of the highly mettled animal disturbed the spirit of the 
wanderer's day dreams, and told him he must be away. These infernal 
engines have no sympathy with a man's thoughts and feelings, however 
bitter. 

The edict was issued — the decree had gone forth — it was too late to 
return. How often in the journey of life we halt, irresolute whether to ad- 



THE YOUNG LAWYBK. 21 

vance or recede, and, in the midst of our perplexity, some propelling circum- 
stances push us sternlj- forward. 

The young man shook a long good-bye, with a few friends that were 
near, stepped aboard the swift runner, and in twinkling the scream of pro- 
gress was thundering thro' the valley, and your friend waved a long adiet* 
to Elmira. 

The first place of any importance we passed through was the Junc- 
tion, about four miles above Elmira, a large and flourishing place, which, 
by the by, will in time prove a formidable rival to the latter place. 

I think the population as set down by the "Little man with the Big 
Book," was one; but since that time there has been 300 per cent, increase. 
The lonely man who was patient enough to switch out a whole train of cars, 
has surrounded himself with the sweets of domestic life and as he main- 
tains his nightly vigils at the iron confluence has the cheering reflection that 
a gentle wife, and noisy little ones are sighing or brawling for his return. 

In a moment after we reached the prettiest valley in the world; and 
in the distance I saw a little weather-beaten shade surrounded domicil, 
that overlooked the whole. That was the theatre of my boyish sports, sor- 
rows and triumphs. 

Oh how I longed to spring from my seat and bury myself beneath its 
redundant shade! I gave it a single glance — a single thought came swell- 
ing from my heart, pregnant with the memory of years — a whole hfe was 
crowded in that moment. Visions of other times clustered thickly around 
me. My indulgent father, angel mother, and dark-eyed sister — the com- 
panions of my youthful hours — passed in rapid review before me. All novr 
dead or gone! and those sacred halls now desolate, echoing to the tread o€ 
strangers I It faded from sight; hills and valleys were between, but memorf 
lingered there, and I thought not of the field, the glen, or the wildwood we 
were passing. 

"Our early days, how often back. 
We turn, on Life's bewildering track, 
Where over hill and valley plays, 
The sunlight of our early days." 

The shriek of the whistle aroused me, and I looked about, and a wood 
colored, dingy-looking village presented itself, and the noisy breakman cried 
out "Big Flats." Rightly named— every thing looked big but decidedly flat. 
The farms around bespoke good cultivation and an excellent soil; but the 
village presented rather an inferior aspect. We were off in a moment; our 
steed grumbled terribly at being compelled to stop, and disregarded entirelr 
every rule of gallantry and good breeding by leaving a lady in the lurch, 
who had come a leetle too late. 

Corning stuck out on a post when next we halted, the smoke pipe wa« 



22 HAMILTON WARD. 

a moment quiet for a rarity, and the ambitious rival of Blmira, turned to 
TJew; it is a thriving town and deserves success. The burning element only 
eeems to have heated its energies for a fierce struggle, to outstrip its com- 
petitors of the Southern Tier. 

The Tocsin a^ain sounded, and we sped through a beautiful farming 
country, stopped long enough at Painted Post to discover that she too has 
unquiet longings after greatness, and looks with eye undaunted upon the 
long line of larger villages that stretch to the Eastward. Addison is deci- 
dedly the loveliest place I saw on my route. It is one of those quiet and 
beautiful spots we would naturally seek when retreating from the noise 
and bustle of the world. 

The fog that surrounded us all the morning began to dissipate before 
one of those suns at the end of summer, that makes us wish that summer 
would always last. The forerunners of Autumn had gathered the sere 
about the edge of the foliage, as the manly brow around which are sprinkled 
the first whitened evidence of coming age. 

The Cauisteo rolled by on one side, tranquil as .sleeping innocence. 
There was melody in its quiet march toward the sea. Humility in its un- 
promising murmuring, the voice of its waters was peace, the prayers of 
nature to its God. 

The valley through which we wound grew less and less, and the 
mountains closer and closer together, and the little space between was filled 
with a beautiful mist, sparkling in the sunbeams, as the sand that render 
glorious the Fairy Realm of the El Dorado. 

1 saw but little tillable land, and that seemed to be poorly cultivated, 
occasionally a patch of potatoes and a spot of arid stubble, relieved the mo- 
notonous wildness of the scene; many of the farmers were in the midst of 
their harvests, the shadows of the tall trees had made it late. 

Cameron, Rathbonevillc, and Canisteo are little places, just springing 
into existence, the railroad is dragging them from their obscurity and op- 
ening to them the markets of the Emporium. They will ultimately be some. 

We stopped at Hornellsville to change horses, our leader had growD 
tired, with a run of sixty miles in two hours and a half. This is a very 
stirring place, and seems to be quite a favorite with the company. 

We stopped at a number of small places between Hornellsville and 
Phillipsville, a description of which would trespass too much upon your 
valuable time and attention, and I will content myself with passing them 
over in silence, and drawing this long letter to a close. 

The scenery as we passed along was truly beautiful, the majestic 
mountains towering on either side to the sun, imbeding the roots of gigantic 
trees, whose lofty branches held communion with the clouds, and ever and 
anon points of high projecting rocks would thrust their moss bound heads 
out over us, "gray with the mist of age." 



THE YOU.\(J LAWYER. 2» 

And often ns we glided on the head would swim, when h)okinK <low[» 
we Biiw glens so dark and deep, that the Scots Novelist would call thein 
the abode of "Elves and Fairies" or "(Joblins foul and Spirits dark." 

The Oriental had wained a half hour past the Meridian when I lande<l 
at I'ihillipsville, and I was henceforth a resident of my new home. H. W. 

For the Republican. 

Letters from rhillipsville — No. *J. 

THE SETTLEMENT. 

Dear Charley— I left you at Phillipsville without much ceremony in 
my last, but will now resume the thread I dropped at the Depot. 

I soon found myself jostling among the crowd that hemmed in a wood- 
en structure bearing a close resemblance to some of those Irish domicils 
that adorn the outskirts of Elmira, and give such salubrity to the atmos- 
phere in that vincinity. This bore the dignified appelation of depot. Boxes, 
iron wheels, barrels, hencoops, individuals of all classes and sizes and con- 
ditions, from the stately landholder of thousands, to the tattered starvling 
of five years old were jumbled together. 

Taking the small portion of this world's goods I have a personal claim 
on, I removed my "corporeal presence" from this motly mass, as fast as 
my peregrinations would carry u\e, and soon found myself at the store of a 
<iUoudum editor, who has seen the folly of his way, and turned to an occu- 
pation more congenial with a good conscience and a full pocket. And here 
let me remark Charley (in a confidential way), That you will 
enjoy but little here below, nor enjoy that little long, if you 
obstinately persist in clinging to a business incident upoa which are 
so much tall ingratitude and poor pay. Those things affect a sensitive man 
like yourself very much, to which we can attribute the sallow and care- 
worn look, silent manners, modest appearance, and general down-fall of 
«tanding collar, that mark your deportment. Our mutual friend B. escorted 
me to the room designed for the accommodation of myself, and a very un- 
certain and severe set of men usually denominated clients. 

First impressions are everything, and usually last the longest, espe- 
cially when of an unpleasant character; mine upon entering the theatre of 
my future exploits were exceedingly so. A hugh pile of shavings rose to a 
pyramidical height in the centre of the room, a long gaunt looking work 
bench bounded the southern extremity, a large quantity of boards and blocks 
obstructed the passage to the windows. The sides and ceiling were ceiled 
up with unpointed siding, with a slat running over each crack to beat back 
the force of the wind, and keep the snow flakes at bay. 

I was a little astonished at this vast array of lumber, but soon set- 



24 HAMILTON WARD. 

tied down into the conclusion that it was symbolical of the region around, 
and furthermore that this was a "wooden" as well as a "great country." I 
wt resolutely at work, clearing out this rubbish, and 'ere the sun had 
•ought his sapphire couch among the western hills, the coast was clear, 
and I sat comfortably seated among a confused mass of books and papers, 
watching the golden tinted clouds, that were swimming athwart the azura 
blue, reckless of their course, and marking the lengthening shadows gath- 
ering Tound, prophetic of approaching night: 

And such a night, the crescent moon followed fast in the burning 
wake of the "God of day," with less of heat and more of beauty, dissipating 
the sultriness of the day, and cheering with its gentle rays the wayfaring 
wanderer on the dusty road of life. A gentle breeze chimed with the run- 
ning of the waters at my feet, and was borne away upon the wings of the 
evening into the dim and dusky distance, which the vision strove to pierce in 
vain. All around could be seen frowning, the primeval forests, that had with- 
stood the storms of years and now stood up in maginficent array to salute 
the "mistress of the tides." And ever and anon would be seen a mellow 
light, glimmering through the wood marking the spot where the hardy pio- 
neer of the wilderness had reared his rustic roof. 

Novelists and poets have lavished volumes of praise upon Italian 
nights, the moonlit scenery of the Bay of Naples and the soft and dreamy 
realms of Greece and Spain. But man will never look upon a lovelier, purer, 
sweeter scene than I did from my little office window, the first night of my 
etay in the sequestered little village of Phillipsville. The night passed and a 
restless one it was for me. In my broken slumbers I dreamed of home. 

An unpretending sign made its appearance in the village next day, 
and many were the curious passersby, who looked at it and passed off, with 
a "pish, a lawyer in town." 

I was early at my post the next morning and had a call from a strange 
visitant. I had sat in solitude and silence for nearly three hours when I 
was startled by a loud rap at the door. It surprised me as I had heard no 
eteps upon the stairway indicating the approach of any one. I opened it, 
however, and shuddered at what I beheld, a fiendish looking being stood be- 
fore me, his long meagre form towered almost to the ceiling, his face was 
Ballow and swarthy and almost fleshless and the skin seemed drawn tightly 
•ver the bones of his face, his mouth was broad and cannibalistic which 
when opened resembled the receiving tomb of Greenwood Cemetery, arms 
and unpared finger nails hung lank and loose by his gaunt sides, his hair 
reaching in snarly mops down his neck, resembling the lion's main, from his 
»ye shone a demon glare, which had borrowed its lustre from the bottom- 
less pit. I endeavored to shove the door full in his face, but it encountered 
a Bwdden obstacle in the loathsome object I have endeavored to describe. 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 26 

The door flew open wider than over; he came in with a quiet and stealthy 
tread, and with a serpent sniilo folded me to his polluted breast. 

Resistance was in raiu, he held me with a yiant grasp, I felt extreme- 
ly wretched — darkness gathered around me, and in my agony I exclaimed, 
"who art thou foul tormenter," and a putrid breath saluted my nostrils with 
the element of contagion and death, and a voice deep and devilish like a 
moan from the city of the dead replied, I am the curse of, and invariable 
visitor to young lawyers, they always make their debut in my society, I 
am the offspring of solitude, ambition and poverty, and am known in com- 
mon parlance as the Blues. 

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the terrible predicament in 
which I was placed prompted me to discover some means of relief. 

A bright thought at last popped into my head. It was a Havana, I 
had some of Nick's best, which had accompanied me to this part of the 
world, I applied a match to the delicate fibres of its extremities and in a 
moment it was in a "fnll glow." The Blues faded away, his hold grew 
weaker and weaker, and at last he had disappeared in smoke, and I was 
left "alone in my glory," wrapt in a vast cloud of fragrant smoke, that 
curled, and twined, and rolled in volumes away. 

Ah glorious antidote for the solitude and sadness of the stranger, it 
"drives dull care away," it relieves the dreary monotony of his desert and 
barren life, when the future looks dark and lowering, and the isolated soul 
turns to prey upon itself, to watch the curling mass as it takes its upward 
flight, or gather in blue phantasies around your heated brow; in which your 
imagination, forming sweet images of the past, present and future, brings 
relief. 

I'ou are in an atmosphere of your own creation, which forms a bar- 
rier to the outer world. You are in your own smoky castle, into whose pre- 
cinct no enemy dare intrude, and each well regulated puff bears away the 
accumulation of heavy thought that burdens the brain. Moralists may pro- 
test, valetudinarians may condemn, delicate, sensitive people may consider 
it loaferish, but when sad and lonely, friendless and unknown, when the 
blues haunt the heart, take a cigar. H. W. 

For the Republican. , 

Letters from Phillipsville— No. .3. 

THE PLACE. 

Dear Charley — I was sorry your compositor in my last made so many 
blunders with it, and got so many words misspelt and so many wrong 
words in the place of right ones: 

But your worthy self had gone to Rochester to swell the editorial 



26 HAMILTON WARD. 

throng there; and the boys at home I'll venture had a "time of it" in th« 
absence of the "Bows," and beinjs' hard pressed with business rushed the 
paper through without examining the proof. 

Methinks, as the aforesaid gentlemen peruse, they will answer, you 
might have written it better: I might, perhaps, but wh«n I write home 
letters ray hand trembles and the syllables blend together, as my thoughts 
do, when the busy memories of the past rush upon the brain. 

Our little place is unknown to "Song or Story." It has never beeni the 
Theatre of Giddy Romance, or the wild dreamland of poets, but it is a spot 
where nature has lavished its rarest blessings. It is situated in a lovely 
valley, about a mile in width, and running either way in length north and 
Houth, many miles. This valley is very fertile, and capable of producing 
any kind of produce that the Empire State can boast of in great abund- 
ance. A large share of this valley is cleaved, and fine farms are issuing 
from the wilderness, as quiet harbingers of civilization, and demonstrative 
of the activity of our yeomanry. Yet many of them retain the evidences 
of the former forests that overshadowed them, in the monstrous stumps 
that seem to claim au hereditary right to the soil, and enforce that right 
by clinging obdurately to the Mother Earth with their long and deep delv- 
ing roots. The soil is mostly a sandy loam and has a dark rich color. The 
coui-try is mostly covered with vast forests very thick and the trees are 
very large, and yield vast quantities of lumber of the best quality, being 
principally white pine. 

Thousands of acres stretch away in all directions from the village, 
mostly untouched by the axe of the woodman, and now by means of t]^ 
iron link that unites the Atlantic Ocean with the great west, it is but 15 
hours' ride from the markets of New York. Hitherto this lumber has been 
comparatively valueless, it was shut out from the eastern markets, and 
found only a place of sale many miles west, at Pittsburg or Cincinnati, 
after traveling through sundry small streams and canals until it got upon 
the Ohio; as a consequence of this Allegany has always been in the back- 
ground, she could neither get to the ocean nor the lakes, but had to com- 
pete with western markets after a long and expensive journey of a thou- 
sand miles. 

Allegany has been the butt of much taunt and ridicule, as being the 
county of Leeks and Onions, and behind tlie rest of the world, but all these 
slurs will be swept into the shade, along with the authors, ere many years 
roll around. She can export and import now, and her natural resources 
and latent wealth, must place the county second to none in point of wealth, 
intelligence and importance in the Southern Tier. 

Phillipsville is situated in the very heart of the county, upon the line 
of the N. Y. iV: Erie Kailioad. It has au immense water privilege capable 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 27 

of ruuninj: a thousand mills and inanufactorios. And I hoin' yon will not 
deem rae visionary when I prophesy that this will in time become the Lowell 
of the State. 

Nature has been very sparing of such gifts as these, and but very 
few places in the Union tan, boast of as good a water power. 

An enterprising company with an eagle eye have seen all this; and 
have grasped the golden opportunity thus presented; they have made a 
large purchase, and erected a saw niill capable of u)annfacturing 30.000 
feet of lumber in twelve hours; they have also built a large foundry cover- 
ing a small farm, which will bo furnished and controlled by our old and 
valued friend of Dr. Leach, one of the colony sent out by Elmira to these 
wooden regions. The company have also dug out of the bowels of the 
earth a small lake, to supply their buildings with water, covering 25 acres, 
and capable of holding 1!5.000 logs. Into this pond a large portion of the 
Genesee can be turned or not, at the option of the proprietors. This com- 
pany consists of T. R. Brayton, who has settled in our midst, and A. S. 
Diven and Andrus & Langdon of your place, which I think (by the by) is a 
pretty strong crowd. 

The village has about 700 inhabitants, be the same more or less; it 
has six stores, two groceries, two blacksmith shops, two taverns, three or 
four mills, two churches, Methodist and Presbyterian, and two ministers, 
three physicians, and last though not least two lawyers. 

There are two things we greatly stand in need of to complete our vil- 
lage, and these are an oyster saloon and a homeopathic doctor. 

All branches of business flourish with us, the people are generally 
quiet and moral, we have but few rows, and no dog fights. 

The Pugilistic shade of Mose has never descended upon our "valley 
of peace." 

The society is good, though limited. 

And now Charley, things wear a more familiar aspect, the chill of the 
strange land has departed, sounds and sights are around me I have seen 
and heard before, and my affections, thoughts and hopes are hovering round 
this place, and consecrating it as home. H. W. 

Letters from Phillipsville— No. 4. 

THE FIKST CLIENT. 

Dear Charley — Everything of historical character is classified, marked 
and remembered by epochs' such as the beginning and the end, and import- 
ant events ad interum; the past is all a matter of history, whether it be of 
nations, communities or individuals, and in the history of each are epochs 
upon which hang their destiny. 

In the life of man we find them unnoticed perhaps by the world at 
large, but nevertheless of the greatest importance to him. 



38 HAMILTON WARD. 

The physician's first patient, the mechanic's lirst job, the minister's 
first sermon, the artist's first piece or appearance, and the lawyer's first 
client, are to each of these individuals epochs long remembered. 

And I have witnessed that event at Phillipsville, and it is yet warm 
and fresh upon my recollection as I write. 

I had been alone three days; long dreary days they were, Charley. 
The sun rose and set on me alone. I poked the fire, read home letters, ar- 
ranged and re-arranged my books and papers, wound up my clock. That 
dear old family clock, which had presided over my mantlepiece for many 
years, and had ticked away my infancy, my boyhood, my happy hours of 
early innocence and joy, and was ticking yet, measuring the sad hours as 
they rolled heavily away. 

It was the only old friend that I saw. I had purchased it from the 
wreck of our household goods, when my mother died, and preserved it as an 
heirloom to keep alive the memories of the past, so I wound it up. I walked 
to the window; strange faces were passing below, strange voices grated 
harshly on my ear. I would hear footsteps on the stairway beneath that 
led to my oflice. I would listen attentively, they would grow nearer, my 
cheek would flush a little, and my heart would bound, I would compose my- 
self to a charm in the grave attitude of a counsellor. But alas, the steps 
would soon die away, and grow fainter and fainter as they threaded their 
way up another stairway that led up over my head. 

How strange and conflicting are the feelings of a young attorney at 
this particular juncture of his life. He is young and inexperienced, and is 
ambitious to enter into a heavy and lucrative practice. Yet shrinks away 
from the task of life before him, instinctively feeling himself incompetent, 
he distrusts his own ability and shrinks from public criticism. 

A question is put to him by an imperious and intelligent man, who 
eyes him with a keen severity, as though he would look into his very soul, 
and sound and weigh him in a moment. Perhaps the question is a difficult 
one, involving much research to arrive at a correct conclusion. He wishes 
to appear ready before his haughty interrogator, and also to give him cor- 
rect advice, as his professional reputation not unfrequently hangs upon that; 
he halts a little in this dilemma whether to tell he don't know or to guess it 
out: The love of seeming learned in law usually predominates and he jumps 
at a conclusion, too frequently wrong. 

Necessity forces him to action, he must be up and doing, the world 
is whirling and rushing past him, all around him he hears the sounds of 
activity and life, he has got his profession at an enormous expense, his 
shingle is waving in the breezes of heaven. His friends are waiting with a 
trembling interest his progress, a stranger comm.unity is standing back and 
waiting for his debut to see how he works before it gives him business. 
And perchance there are but few pennies in his pocket, and want, starva- 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 29 

tion and disLrraco bang out upon the banners of the future unless he "puts 
money in his purse." The stem realities of life sink heavily around him, all 
his early dreams of greatness are fading away. The cares and inconveni- 
ences of the world are dissipating them forever; he must be up and doing. 

Away with dreams fancy and hollow expectation, take hold of life 
as it is; go to work. Tread the thoroughfares of life with aii unfaltering 
step, it may be stern, it may look black, all may give him the cold shoulder, 
he may have no sympathizers, save congenial wretches perhaps poorer than 
himself. He appears in court; experienced lawyers, flushed with confidence 
and success, may sneer at him; a swelling, pompous court with a look of 
inexpressible dignity may peer through his ancient spectacles at him as 
much as to say, "Sir, you are very young; have you got any friends." Never 
mind all this, struggle on. 

Thoughts of Ibis character were revolving through my mind when the 
door oi)ened and a tall man entered. He slightly bowed and leisurely took 
a chair, he was rather thin also, nature had provided him with a plenty of 
bone, but with a meagre quantity of flesh; he was a strong man and every 
movement indicated vigor and energy, his chin and face were embalmed in a. 
monstrous pair of black whiskers, which gave a little sternness to the ex- 
pre.ssion of his face. He probably had seen 35 winters and was kind look- 
ing, his eyes were of a genial blue into whose clear depths you could see 
the workings of a noble and generous heart. Are you the lawyer, said he, 
breaking the silence. I am a lawyer, I replied. I have a case for you, he 
continued. I felt a little thump at the bottom of my heart, a slight shade 
wandered athwart my vision, that was all; I gave him the nod of attention, 
his lofty form towered in a moment to the ceiling, I saw his hand wander* 
ing impatiently into his breeches pocket, when he extended a bundle of pa- 
pers; take them, said he; they will tell you all; follow the rascal until you 
see me again. "Y"ou intend to practice law in our midst do you, well 
success attend you, you have a hard and unscrupulous set of attorneys 
to war against in Allegany, 

But Fight it Through; 
You may be solitary, young man, in this strange place; if so, call at 
my bachelor residence a mile from town; you are always welcome; my 

name is ."' 

He vanished as he came, without noise or parade, "every inch a man," 
and left me with my head leaning on the package and pondering over his 
words, "Fight it through." II_ t^ 

For the Republican. 
Letters from rijillipsvillo— No. .5. 

THE BACHELOR CLUB. 
Dear Charley— My letter starts with a singular title, and I greatly fear 
you will not !ind it a very interesting onn] but visions of Home haunt me to- 



J 



30 HAMILTON WARD. 

night, and I will write you notwithstanding, as 1 belie\ i- your generous iiii- 
ture will readily indure a tolerable nuisance for the sake of au old friend. 

Man is but best a gregarious animal, and herds as much with species as 
the wild bison of the prairies or the sea gull of the tropical ocean. This is 
the secret of the stability and perpeuity of all associations and communi- 
ties, without which they would not exist an hour. 

Isolated and remote as we are, this principal is at work at Phillips- 
Tille, and has formed an association of the unmarried men. greatly to the 
consternation of the spinsters in the neighborhood, of which your corre- 
fepondent is a member in good standing, although considered rather youth- 
ful, and not exactly past that critical age when the heart bounds at the 
sight of a pretty face, and the memory long retains the lingering glance 
of a dark eye; but my exemplary conduct in the ville had inspired them 
with confidence, and after a searching examination the honorable degree of 
M. B. C. of P. V. was conferred upon me. 

The club numbers 10 in all, and its avowed objects are "peace and 
good will toward men," and nothing in particular toward women. Marriage 
is not expressly forbidden but whoso is adventurous enough so to do, has 
an ominous mark across his name upon the muster roll, his vacant seat is 
covered with a dark veil, a dirge is chanted, the doors are closed against 
him forever, and the club goes in mourniiDg thi-ee days: we have secret 
dresses and symbols which of course I cannot explain. 

On the evening of the 8th of December, '51, there was a great gather- 
ing of the B. C. a stray newspaper had got here some way or other, and 
informed us that Kossuth had landed upon the shores of America. 

Immediately the tocsin was sounded, and the elect were called 
to a "high festival" to welcome on the part of the fraternity the illustrious 
Magyar. 

Dresses and Characteristics of the Evening. 

Amin Bey, in full Turkish costume. 

(John Bull), America a century ago, with tights, knee buckles, ruffled 
shirt and cockade hat. 

American Sailor Boy in full rig. 

Kossuth in Polish Habilaments. 

General Scott in complete uniform. Captain La Fitt, with long mus- 
tache, peaked hat, striped vest, and a belt containing a brace of pistols, and 
« dirk, giving him decidedly a piratical expressiou. 

Brother .Jonathan with outgrown trousers, cowhide boots, and a hat 
"leetle out O fashin." 

Proceedings of the Evening. 

Music by the band; instruments, flute, tin whistle, jaw bone, piano 
forte, stove pipe. Air, Hail Columbia. 



THE YOUNG LAWYEK. 31 

MHrch, under coniiaand of (Jeneral Scott- 

InitintioD of a member into the profound mysteries of the B. C. Musie, 
Hail to the Chief. 

Sui)j)er Jiunounced at 11 V. M. 

BILL OF FARE. 

Turkey Oysters 

Oysters Turkey 

Turkey, Oysters. 

Immense variet.^, six different dishes. 

Amin Bay, takiuj;; his seat at the heail of the table remarkeil that as a 
Turk he thought it was fit he sonhl enter Turkey, and immediately made 
an onslaught upou the highly graniverous nation before him. Jonathan, 
whose ideas of dissolution had been considerably aroused by the recent 
slavery agitation, exclaimed; to see the Turk who dismembers Turkey it is 
downright treason I swow, but was quieted by General Scott's remarking 
tliat as we v>'pre all hungry, therefore we love Turkey. 

Toast by John Bull. 

Kossuih: The chumpiou of the old world's liberty, may he twine the 
Slars and Stripes with the Tricolors of Hungary, and lead on the crusade 
of the free, to accomplish the liberty of all mankind. This was received 
with great enthusiasm and followed by a tremendous attack u)i<):i Turkey. 
The moments sped rapidly on, and a heavy stillness hung over the scene, 
disturbed only by the clattering of knives and forks, and an occasional 
ejaculation from the company, until Turkey was no more. Nothing beiny 
left of her maginficent proportions but a few long Avrecks, that were strewn 
about the table, Whereupon Kosiosko gave a toast, 

Hungary; Betrayed but not undone, the dawn of tht; 20th century 
will behold her standing proudly in the list of Nations. — (Tremendous ap- 
plause); Jonathan's voice was soon heard above the tempest, clubbing with 
his hand upon his depository of food, I fear not, 1 feel from the bottom of 
my heart that Turkey has destroyed Hungry. 

The oysters came and went, how or where I will not pretend to say, 
but they Avere gone, and John Bull was called upon for a speech. I will 
not pretend to report all he said, but content myself with giving such ex- 
tracts as 1 remember; he seemed to forget himself and launched out like a 
true blooded American. It was something as follows: 

"Gentlemen of the B. C: 

"We have met to celebrate a thrilling and interesting event. The 
winds and waves of the .Atlantic have thrown upon our shores the "foremost 



32 HAMILTON WARD. 

man' of all this world." [Cheers.] A refugee from the wiles of treachery, 
and the bloodhounds of despotism, he came, bearing with him the accumu- 
lated sufferings of 5,000,000 of people, scourged by the rod of tyrants. The 
victims of merciless persecutions; all their lofty national prido, their soul- 
stirring aspirations, their time-hallowed institutions, rights and privileges, 
trailing in the dust. 

Their altars desolate, and their temples echoing to the sacriligeous 
tread of a ruthless soldiery, their homes laid waste, and the monuments 
of their former grandeur blasted by the shock of war. 

Where stood the sanctuary and waved the corn, stands the gibbot 
and lies the blackened corpse, the land bewails liberty departed, and the 
soil is fattening with the blood of her defenders. 

But the Leader is free. [Cheers.] God has reserved him for a great 
work to emancipate his country, and strike the shackles from the oppressed 
of Europe (immense cheering with an. ocean of shouts, God wills it, God wills 
it>. Hungary is low but her blood cries to Heaven for justice, and it will 
come. [Cheers]. The handwriting is upon the wall of St. Petersburg, and 
passing away is written upon the throne of the Hapsburgs. Corruption and 
blood hold together its rotten foundations, and it must fall. [Cheers]. 

And He, the wandering star of a people's hopes, we bid him wel- 
come. [Renewed cheering]. Around him we twine the Stars and Stripes, 
and consecrate to him a lofty niche in the Temple of Heroes. [Loud cheer- 
ing]. How the splendor of ancient conquerors shrinks into insignificance 
when compared with him. 

He comes not with the arm of war, with banner and spear, but with 
resistless eloquence upon his lips. The burden of his song is freedom, and 
the spirit of his prayer is humanity, and 25,000,000 people rise up to greet 
him as one man and invoke the blessings of heaven upon his head and 
cause. How he roused the fires of liberty in his native laud; how he led 
on the brave to triumph and glory; how he shook to its centre the Austrian 
Dynasty; how he swept back the increasing herds of the Don Cossacks; how 
victory perched upon his banner, though hemmed in by the slavish millions 
of two mighty empires, until 

'Treason like a deadly blight comes o'er the councils of the brave 
and blasts them in hour of might.' 

And the Traitor Georgey sunk his couutry's sun in gore, and the de- 
mon Haynau vented his fiendish cruelty upon the murdered and betrayed. 

But the night of depotism is passing away, and the land of Kossuth 
will take its place in the family of nations. [Cheers]. This is no idle 
prophecy; the progress of the age, the march of steam, lighting and in- 
telligence presages it. The reign of absolutism is ended, and the chant of 
Liberty will echo from valley to hill top all the world round. Thrones and 
potentates will sink into their 'merited oblivion,' and upon the battlements 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 33 

of the eventful future I see occupying the most exalted region in the esti- 
mation of mankind, two names, outrivaling all others in splendor, and hailed 
by all coming generations as the deliverers of the world, 

Washington and Kossuth, 
(Three times three for them). 

The thunder subsided, and the Sailor called for a bumper on the fol- 
lowing: 

"The Hungarian Banner," 

Soon may its bright folds wave over the Fatherland, as unpolluted by the 
touch of despotism as the Stars and Stripes of our own glorious Union, 

(Hot Coffee flourished High), 
with a waving of banners, the Star Spangled, the Tri-colored, the Union 
Jack and the Crescent. 

The night had crept into the "small hours," and the Club broke up 
with a march after the sort of Yankee Doodle — Jonathan losing all control 
over himself at the sound, and terribly disaranging the starched ruffles of 
John Bull. 

Among the Club I recognized L. J. B., R. T. F., A. J. H., B. F. M., 
and H. W., formerly from Elmira, and it was unanimously resolved that 
the Elmira papers be requested to publish the proceedings of the meeting. 

H. W. 

The journal records the slow beginnings of a country- 
law practice. Showing him to be sometimes impatient, 
sometimes despondent and yet slowly gathering force and 
confidence. 

On October 4th he was appointed attorney for the Phil- 
lipsville Plank Road Company, and on the i6th of that 
month was elected a delegate to the Whig County Conven- 
tion. 

On the 24th he was defeated in his first trial. Martin 
Grover and Wilks Angel being opposed to him, and resorts 
to the lawyer's remedy, viz: "Swearing at the Court." 

From the journal and from those who remember those 
days it appears that his industry was most unremitting. All 
day long and late in the night he was to be found in his office 
hard at work, with but small financial results, as his joy re- 
corded in the journal over a $3.00 fee witnesses. 

On November I5tli he described a visit to Elmira and 
Waterloo, and confesses that he is in love with the girl 



34 HAMILTON WARD. 

whom he subsequently married, Mary Adelia Chamberlam, 
of Waterloo. 

From this time the journal in principally devoted to her. 

However his business rapidly increased until by the Dc- 
ginning of 1853 he had a considerable country practice. 

In 1853 is recorded the fact that the first Episcopal ser- 
vice held in the town occurred on February 13th. 

In this year Hamilton took a journey whicli in those 
days M-as interesting and somewhat difficult. Its singular 
results and curious events are best related in an article re- 
printed in the Allegany County Republican, in 1880 or 1881. 
The term "Stalwart Act" is a reference to the regular or- 
ganization of the Republican party, to which Hamilton 
Ward belonged at that time. The interview is true to life, 
and the article in full is as follows : 

HAM. WARD'S STORY. 



[NTERESTING SCRAP FROM A CONGRESSMAN'S DAIRY 
"STALWART ACT." 



A correspondent of the Syracuse Herald caught Attorney Genera! 
Ward in a sociable mood .nfter dinner the other day at Albany, and be- 
tween the puffs of smoke from a choice cigar, the following scrap of experi- 
ence w-as drawn out of him. It '"sounds" just like Ham, and his hundreds 
of Allegany County friends will read the narrative with keen relish: 

"Soon after graduating at a law school in the central part of this 
State, I was given a large claim to collect from a wealthy planter living iu 
Tennessee. It was before the day of railroads, and the swiftest way to get 
there was by the sea. I went to New Y'^ork, sailed down the coast, landed 
at Charleston, S. C, and traveled across the State toward Tennessee. They 
were having the cholera South that year. I caught it and was laid up at 
Columbia two weeks. I din't have much money with me at starting, and 
the sickness about used it up. I was so weak when I again started on my 
journey to Tennessee that I could hardly walk. At last I reached Green- 
ville — my money was all gone and I presume I looked like a tramp. As I 
reached the place the church bells were ringing, but my shoes were so worn 
out that I was ashamed to go upon the ground floor. So I crept into the 
gallery at one of the churches, and sat among some of the prettiest girls 
I ever saw in my life. (Ham., it thus appears, was at this early age a 
great admirer of female beauty! and we doubt if he heard a word of the 
FPrmon that morning! — Ed. Republican). I told Andy Johnson about it, 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 35 

yoars afterward, nnd he said that indeed they did have a lot of pretty girl* 
ill Greenville at that time. 

"The next morning I started for ray destination, 30 miles up in the 
mountains. I had to foot it every inch of the way, and on arriving there 
I found that my man had died and that his will was disputed. So I skir- 
mished around and discovered that one of the men who was contesting the 
will was rich, and lived some four or five miles out of the town. He was 
one of your Southern barons, had several hundred negroes, scores of horses 
and some bloodhounds. I tried threatening him: he set the dogs on me. I 
killed one with a billet of wood and escaped to the town. Well, there I 
was. without a cent — a poor wretch, with no person of property in the 
North who cared about me, to whom I could send for assistance. I made 
my way back to Greenville, somehow, and resolved upon a bold stroke. 1 
went into the fir.st lawyer's office I came to and said: 

"My name is Ward; I came from New York State to collect a claim; 
the man has died and his will is disputed; I would like to sell you this claim 
for $50. I want money to go back to New York." 

The lawyer was a kind-faced man. I remember he asked me why I 
didn't send for money to New York, and I owned up that there was no one 
there I could remember who would send it to me. He finally said: 
"Well, I will go and see a friend about this." 

He brought his friend back with him and they agreed to lend me ,$50. 
I signed a paper and they gave me the money. Then I put my hand deep 
in my trousers' pocket and hauled out a gold watch (we infer Ham., had 
already "planted" his gold chain! ha! ha! — Ed. Rep.) I said: 

"Gentlemen, I want you to take this watch and keep it as a sort of 
security for what I owe you. The first money I earn I promise you it will 
be sent to you to repay you." 

They wouldn't take the watch at first, but I forced them to. I got 
home, and when I had scraped together $73 I sent it to them. They took 
out their principal and interest and sent me the watch and the money that 
was over. And so apparently my connection with the Greenville man 
ended. 

Twenty years passed, and I was a Member of Congress from this 
State. It was the time of Reconstruction, and as a Radical Republican I 
was a member of the Reconstruction Committee. I had special charge of 
the reconstruction of the State of Tennessee. One day there were a lot of 
Tennosseans before me in relation to the affairs of the State— Horace May- 
nard, W. L. B. Stokes. Roderick R. Butler, and others. That evening, at 
home, in glancing over the papers I saw that Johnson had nominated a man 
named Milligan for .Judge of the Court of Claims. It was at a time when 
Congress was having its fierce war with .lohnson; so fierce that the Senate 
would confirm none of his nominations, no matter how good they might be. 



.36 HAMILTON WARD. 

I thought this man Miliigan would have no chance, and then turned to mj 
wife and said: 

"Do you remember a man named Milligan?" 

She did not, 

"Well," said I, "is there any circumstance of my life in which I have 
been connected with a man of that name?" 

She did not remember. 

The following morning, at the committee room I turned to Maynard 
and said: 

"Who is this man Milligan that Johnson has nominated for Judge of 
the Court of Claims?" 

He replied, "Oh. ho is a lawyer living at Greenville, Tennessee— one 
of Johnson's chums." 

"Was Milligan a Union man during the war?" I then inquired. 

"Yes," said Maynard, "and such an outspoken one that the rebs strip- 
ped him of all his property. He is now as poor as a church mouse." 

"Is he a good lawyer?" I next asked. 

"One of the best in East Tennessee," replied Maynard. 

"Then," said I, rapping the table with my fist, "By God, Sir, 
" He shall be confirmed.''^ They were all amazed, and inquired 
what earthly interest I had in Milligan. I didn't tell them; but went 
over to Conkling in the Senate and told him the entire story I have told 
you, of how this man Milligan helped me when I was in sore trouble. 
Then I went about the Senate getting votes for Millgan. I pestered Mayn- 
ard night and day to get his consent, and the end of it was that 

Milligan Was Confirmed. Johnson sent for me and thanked me. 
The news of the confirmation got down to Tennessee, and Milligaji' start- 
ed for Washington. He came from the railroad train to the Capitol, still 
wearing his duster. Roderick R. Butler brought me out to him and in- 
troduced us. Milligan was then betwixt sixty and seventy and had a wife 
many years younger than himself. He said to me: 

"Mr. Ward, what was it that caused you to interest yourself in a 
stranger's fortunes? I was looking forward to an old age of misfortune 
and poverty. This apointment is like manna from Heaven for me." 

I replied — 

'^''Do You Rememhcr Lending $50 over twenty years ago to a poor, 
cholera-stricken wretch of a lawyer that had come down to Tennes.see to 
collect a claim, and spent all his money?" 
Milligan said, "I do." 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 37 

"Well— that was me!" 

Well, if you would boliove me, we all had a crying spell over the way 
things turnetl out. 

Allegany was at this period a new country. The Gen- 
esee Valley was a niightv forest of White Pine, and the river 
furnished the power to saw it into logs. The Erie Railroad, 
then but a few years old, supplied the transportation, and 
business was most active. 

As the first practicing lawyer in Phillipsville, Hamil- 
ton Ward found his practice steadily growing, and for some 
time he was the only attorney in the village. Later one, J. 
W. Duell, came, but he remained only a short time, and re- 
moved to Oramal, Allegany County, and in 1857 Edward 
W. Chamberlain, a brother of Mrs. Ward's, was admitted 
to the bar, and began to practice in Belmont, where he re- 
sided until the time of his death, which occurred March 6th, 
1900. For the first few years of his practice he was in part- 
nership with Hamilton Ward. 

Mr. Ward's first office was in the Bush Building, on the 
south side of Schuyler Street, opposite Wells Lane. After 
the fire he rented the three rooms over Jesse Sorter's groc- 
ery store, on the north side of the street, which of^fice he al- 
ways thereafter occupied. He maintained an excellent 
library, but in other respects his office was plainly appointed. 

He always enjoyed the best practice in the village, al- 
though A. J. McNett, Wilkes Angel and Rufus Scott were 
worthy competitors. 

The village of Belmont was incorporated February 21st, 
1853. This project, which was enthusiastically supported 
by Mr. Ward, was strongly opposed by some of the older 
residents, especially Alvin E. Parker, who was the rich man 
of the place, and who objected to the increase of taxation. 
Parker was routed at the town meeting after Mr. Ward had 
compared him to the unprogressive Scotchman, who ob- 
jected to harnessing the 'Svind of the Lord" in a fanning 
mill. 

Two miles southeast of the village a wood-crowned hill 
lifted its green head several hundred feet above the valley, 
and Mr. Ward, on this account, selected the name Belmont, 



38 HAMILTON WARD. 

which was approved and adopted. The postoffice, however, 
went by the name of Philhpsville until the year 1859. when 
it too became Belmont. 

On August 7th, 1854, Peter H. Ward purchased a house 
on Washington Street in the village, of Col. Luscian May 
for his son, and on the 24th day of October, 1854, Hamilton 
Ward married at St. Paul's Church, in the village of Water- 
loo, Seneca County, N. Y., Mary Adelia Chamberlain, 
youngest daughter of John Chamberlain, and Julia Burt, of 
that place. 

Returning to Belmont after a brief wedding trip to Vir- 
ginia, the young couple went to live in the house recently 
piu chased by Peter Hamilton Ward, which was deeded to 
Hamilton Ward in 1868. 

Hamilton Ward was rapidly developing. He was fond 
of literature, and a constant study of the works of Byron 
and Shakespear gave him a style which was extremely well 
adapted to public speaking. His fancy was strong, and his 
style would do credit to one of much better advantages. 
Few of the speeches of these days remain, but a 4th of July 
oration delivered in Belmont in 1855 is of interest. 

It is as follows : 

Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen: 

This is no ordinary occasion that calls us together. No suddon gath- 
ering convened by some unexpected necessity or strange unlocked for event 
of congratulation or peril. 

But a single wave of that vast sea of patriotism and love of country 
which has swept annually over the land for more than three-quarters of a 
century. 

To-day for the seventy-ninth time the freemen of America meet with 
one spontaneous accord to celebrate an event which ushered liberty into the 
world and founded on the rock of equality the noblest structure of civil gov- 
ernment that ever took its seat in the family of nations or sent its voice 
thrilling through the counsels of time. 

To-day. thank God, we meet as men. No party fueds, sectional dissen- 
tions. bitter feelings, animosities, political, social or religious fester in our 
hearts. No cold formalities, invidious distinctions of caste, class and posi- 
tion smother the better and nobler impulses of the soul. 

The rich, the poor, the old, the young and the middle aged, the laugh- 
ing, bright eyed child, the beautiful gay-hearted maiden, the dignified and 



4TH OF JULY SPEECH ISfif.. 3» 

graci'fuJ matron, the stroug and bouyant youth, the men of oarp ami busi- 
iicss, toil and suffering; the son of toil, of wealth and misfortune, of 
success and disappointment, natural born and adopted, all are here, side by 
*ide and united upon the same broad platform of equal rights. All mer- 
ttnary, scllish ft'elin,i;s are at rest. Stirred up and enlivened with one emo- 
tion of patriotism, moved by one throb of sympathy, and rendering one uni- 
versal homage to the founders and perpetuators of the liberties we enjoy 
and the government that secures it. 

And not only here among the hills of Allegnny is this scene transpir- 
ing, but the bosom of thirty-one republics linked by one cord of sympathy 
and purpose, heaves with emotions that come up from the foundations of 
human action and responds to the sentiments we hear proclaimed. 

From the Canadas to the remotest Florida, from ocean to ocean on 
every mountain and in every dale, in the city and in the country, beside 
every stream and in every place, palace or hamlet hearts are beating, and 
fihouts are rising from 25,000,000 of people in unism with yours to-diiy. And 
not alone upon the soil consecrated by the ashes of our fathers and tho 
blood-bought heritage transmitted to us but upon every ocean, in every har- 
bor, capital and port throughout the civilized world the representatives of 
our gdvornment and commerce are assembled, and the same banner which 
is yonder unfurled to the breeze is waving, the shout that swells up from 
our grateful souls is echoing even 'neath the glories of tyrants and the pres- 
tage of thrones. 

Aye, too! far over the sea where the slave of domination is toiling; 
his averted eye is brightened and the great heart of the masses is heaving 
Filent and pure in unison with your.s, and upon every breeze that is wafted 
to your embrace, even where the prison fetters gall and liberty is treason, 
is the deep and mighty invocation of down trodden nations for your safety 
and preservation. And there the blood cemented thrones long standing, and 
• rime engendered desposilions. are tottering. The votaries of pomp, position 
and pride are humbled and silent and there steals upon their terrified ears 
from all this the sure and solemn prelude of their fall, but now while our 
banner floats on land and sea amid the acclamations of our countrymen, 
while joy lights upon every face and beams in every eye. while six thou- 
sand years all looking down upon us and the spirits of departed generations 
communing with us, let us pause and render to the God of the Universe 
our deep felt gratitude and profound appreciation for all these blessings 
and privileges which he has showered upon us. 

And now the scene and occasion throng us with thick memories that 
reach farback into the ages that are gone and drag from the mist of the past 
facts of which history is almost mute, and leads us to inquire the cause of 
those events that have rolled over the world for the last century, and we 



40 HAMILTON WARD. 

may obtain some clew as to the reason for this day and the vast combina- 
tions of causes that first wrought the discovery of that vital principle of 
liberty so dear to the hearts of us all. 

And secondly the direct and immediate agency by which that prin- 
cipal was asserted and maintained on this side of the Atlantic until its full 
development brought forth this proud structure of civil government. The 
perpetuity and magnificence of which we are commemorating on this oc- 
casion. 

The principals upon which our institutions are based are eternal. They 
are founded in the very nature of things, in the natural and inalienable 
rights, embodied and so beautifully exemplified in the memorable declara- 
tion just now read. Truthful as is that instrument it is no new expression 
of the principals it sets forth. These principals and the causes of their 
adoption in this country existed long anterior to the discovery by Columbus 
or the landing of the Puritans. We catch glimpses of them as far back as 
history carries us until we approach that doubtful period, the boundary 
of chronicaled events when fact and fancy hold a disputed empire over tJie 
public mind. In the early ages we find them overthrowing dynasties, carry- 
ing away thrones and monarchies, systems and dependencies like the sweep 
of the magician's wand until Rome, Greece, Carthage and an innumerable 
number of lesser republics arose from the night of barbarism and assumed 
in turn such all controlling positions in the scale of nations. 

We see these republics flourish even amid the darkness that envelopes 
them, and as long as they were true to freedom and themslves their arms 
were triumphant in every land, their names were terrible in every capital, 
nation after nation bowed the tributary knee and their rulers and ill- 
gotten wealth adorned the triumphal march of their successful conquerors. 
The principal of liberty was taught by Socrates, written by Lycurgus, pro- 
claimed by Cato, thundered by Cicero and Demosthenes, illustrated by Cin- 
cinnatus, and beloved by every Roman and Grecian heart. For it Leon- 
idas fell and Brutus perished. Virtue, stern virtue and integrity, sustained 
these men and nations and kept in the ascendant this principal until the 
fascinations of power and the allurements of gold corrupted the simple Re- 
publicans, and they tottered and fell like a strong man in dissolution while a 
rude race from the lands beyond the Volga ravaged the gardens of Greece 
and the palaces of Italy, and then followed the world's darkest era — all 
seemed lost and the principal of liberty shut out for ever. But not so — 
it lingered in a thousand hearts, in the mountain fastnesses, the caves of 
darkness, and haunts of silence it lingered, and amid the centuries that 
followed it nerved many a strong arm, it shone dimly yet inspiringly upon 
many a rude mind. It lurked In the heart of the poor, the oppressed and 
forsaken, nerved the soul of the martyr, lifted the prisoner's hopes, in- 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 41 

spired tho dying brave, dwelt on the lips of the manacalled slave, on every 
home alter which the desecrating tread of tyranny had blighted it kindled 
« Dame. 

It had no intelligence to guide, no religion to cheer it, no harbor to re- 
ceive it, still it struggled on, it knew not why or whither. It saw no broad 
continent touched by the brine of tither ocean, reposing in grand tran- 
quility in the western waters where that principal would be asserted, it 
scarcely knew a God to which it could appeal in the dark era that followed 
the downfall of Kome and preceded the reformation. But on it struggled, 
following its unseen destiny, and handing down from father to son as a 
precious legacy, as something to be kept sacred and not to be told save to 
trusty sympathizers, less crime-aged despotism should hear its whisper, but 
every prayer of tlie enslaved, groan of oppression, fear of suffering, sign 
of degradation that were uttered and felt in that long and dismal era of 
1600 years ago were silently and surely carving out the fate of the new 
world. They were treasured in heaven, placed upon the records of eter- 
nity and gradually and faithfully, in God's own time, was preparing the 
way for the emancipation of mankind. 

I have said that tho light that guided it was obscured; in its restless 
longings it often took a wrong direction and many things were attributed 
to it by the crafty and subtle which did not legitimately belong to it. Hence 
history often records its votaries as rebels, revolutionists and enthusiasts 
who are charged with committing great excesses, but they were often clog- 
ged with obstacles which sprung directly from their association with bar- 
barism. Still it persevered, put on a thousand different phases, adopted 
itself to the various circumstances in which it was placed. It could not 
abolish tyranny altogether, hence it was content to abolish it as much as 
possible. In the church it limited the political supremacy of the Pope by 
turning against it the monarchies of France, Italy and many of the German 
states and at length brought out the moral reformation of Luther. 

In the state it wrested from the unwilling grasp of King John the 
charter of English liberties and pitted the barons of the realm against tho 
potentate, established the habeas corpus and trial by jury and in similar 
inann«r curtailed the power of the monarchs of France 
and many of the states of Northerm Europe. It estab- 
lished a popular branch in the government I have 
named where the people could have access. It remodeled and improved the 
judiciary and otherwise constantly enlarged the liberty of the subject until 
Louis the 16th of France fell a victim to its inordinate cravings and Charles 
the 1st of England stooped to the block. It gained a momentary supremacy 
fat the days of Cromwell, but ignorance and perfidy palsied its efforts and 
gained some petty advantages in other portions of Europe. But the grand 
drama was opening, the plans of the God of the Universe were at last de- 



42 HAMILTON WARD. 

veloped— to the astonished gaze of liberty's champions. A home and coun- 
try were revealed to it where liberty would at last repose and be asserte*!. 
Long had it traveled from the land of the Pyramids. It had wandered 
through generations of darkness and blood ever westward until a band of 
exiles driven alternately from England to Holland through fire and perse- 
cution and that which would have been death to many men, inspired by 
emotions that burn and nerved by a purpose that the fate of humanity had 
fixed in their hearts, Bid adieu forever "to the land of corpses and .slaves, 
A dreary master of chains and graves," Yet home and all to them with 
many tears and long farewells these men of iron and representatives of 
freedom launched upon the boundless deep, and the Mayflower was sail- 
ing to the New World. 

And there fellow citizens in that small bark, lashed by the foam of the 
vast ocean, with the blue heavens above and the blue waters beneath, with 
hardly a compass or guide, this frail bark, a mere atom on the waste of 
waters, that a single blast might destroy, a single wave submerge, con- 
tained the germ of that liberty you this day enjoy, the acorn of that tree 
that spreads its broad branches over you now where your eagle sits and 
your stars are blazing. 

On the 9th day of November, 1620, the Puritan foot first trod the 
soil of New England, the first echo of civilization and the mighty events 
to come, broke upon the wild stillness of centuries. No pleasant fields, 
glowing landscapes, vernal dykes, no habitation of ease and luxury, no 
city spires, capacious harbors, welcoming throng, friendly glances or ex- 
tended palms welcomed these sea tossed, storm lashed wanderers to the 
new world, but a stern rock bound coast, worn bare by the surf of ages 
on an unhospitable shore, a howling wilderness, a background of snow and 
Ice, a savage foe skulking near with looks of revenge and implements of 
death, the howling wolf and screaming panther, extended the grim salutft 
from a continent untamed to the founders of an empire. I will not follow 
them, their trials, hardships and vicissitudes fill a volume in the heart of 
every patriot. Their stern integrity, iron perseverance, the hazardous con- 
ditions under which they lived, their sufferings, trials and peculiarities and 
nltimate success, the part which they took in the struggles which ended 
in securing liberty for this country— are as familiar as "household words" 
to every school boy. They form the theme of a thousand tales, the inspira- 
tions which millions feel. 

They had no giiide but right, no incentive but freedom; unlike all 
others they accomplished what no other community ever did. history has no 
such eharactei-s upon its broad margin. 

They seemed sent on the especial errand of colonizing the new world, 
a community of heroes no discouragement appalled, no obstacle thwarted, 
no influence could sever them from the stern rule of duty their religion 



4'1'H OF JULY SPEECH 18;j0. 4S 

sduifht, lliC'ir noble souls embraced, their conscience approved. We see, it 
i« true, about their characters and actx that which tho fastidiousness of this 
age might disclaim (but would to God this period could boast of half such 
worthy men). Errors marked their career no doubt, but they were error* 
of the head and not of the heart, they sprang inevitably out of their condi- 
tions. 

They wore an isolated band arrayed against the whole world — thej 
had no affinities of cast with any people under heaven, the governments of 
the old world were opposed to them in principal, theory and actions and built 
up foes against them on the very alters they had left. 

The hereditary lords of the soil, the wild beast and the much wilder 
savage were lurking in every nook and beneath the shadow of every tre« 
and thicket to destroy them; from the East came home upon every swell 
of the broad Atlantic the edicts of political death and social demoralization; 
from the West came the torch, the scalping knife and the tomahawk; amid 
such jeopardy they lived, under such circumstances arose, over such ob- 
stacles triumphed; is to be wondered at that such brave yet ignorant men 
were guilty of some absurdities, and guided by their rigid piety, some timea 
bordered on fanticism? 

They banished Ann Hutchison and Roger Williams but inculcated 
morality and the strictest integrity. 

They punished witchcraft but encouraged the arts and sciences, 
planted the I'ose in the wilderness, built cities and thriving towns in the 
trackless waste, brought fertile fields and a nourishing agriculture from the 
Bterile earth and above all kept alive and blazing, pure and unadulterated 
that vital principle I have been tracing through such a period of blood and 
disseminated its influence throughout the land; bearded the British lion in his 
den, sent men of iron with nerves of steel to dispute every inch of ground 
with oppression until the crowning act of insolence and temerity was done 
by the assumption of the Mother Country. The Stamp Act was passed. 
Taxation without representation burst the last tie assunder that linked the 
Two Hemispheres. 

The tea M'as thrown into the Boston Harbor, the first patriot blood 
was dying the plains of Lexington, the cannon was booming on Bunker 
Hill, the electric voices of Adams, Henry and James Otis were calling the 
masses to arms, the hasty Congress was convened, the Declaration just 
read, fearlessly published to tho world, and the war was actually begun, 
and what a contest; it has no parallel in the world's history, in significance 
and importance. It did not involve the paltry fate of an isolated province 
alone, nor a slight ripple upon the tide of political events, but one that 
would tell greatly for the weal or woe of the whole earth; it was the gi- 
gantic effort of the thralldom of centuries to maintain its dominion. The 



44 HAMILTON WARD. 

first decided stand taken on the field and in the Cabinet for the principle 
of human liberty since the downfall of Rome, and the advent of Christ. In 
the balance hung all that is sacred to the heart, dear to the conscience and 
desirable in life. To be defeated in that contest the patriot felt was the 
greatest misfortune that could cloud the destinies of the human race; the 
hope of ages would be crushed, the light of equality extinguished forever, 
and the world retrogade to a darkness that would be perpetual, no star 
would peer in upon the general gloom to point out one landmark, reflect 
one ray of hope or beam of better days upon the sunken heart and galling 
fetters of the slave. The strong aspirations of men after a nobler and bet- 
ter fate would shrink away from the heart, and the future, every home a 
charnel house, every mount a tomb, every vale a prison, every bugle a dirge, 
all men tyrants or slaves. Then or never was the principle to be main- 
tained, ten the crisis. If the patriot conquered our country, Ay the world 
was free if the usurper and the hireling, the cloak of the fallen and the 
gown of the downtrodden would cover society to the latest generations. Was 
there ever such an issue presented to any people? 

And what did the present indicate and the future proclaim? Was 
there even a hope of success? Could the most sanguine anticipate more 
than entire destruction? Across the sea on the other side stood the monu- 
ments of fraud which time had given the prestage of divinity. Great 
Britain with her countless myriads, upon whose empire the sun never sets, 
the commercial ruler of the world, the Titan of nations, and whose name 
chilled the vitals of every antagonistic power, whose arms were the most 
renowned, whose bounds the most extensive. 

Beside her, in active co-operative sympathy, stood every despotic mon- 
archy and principality under heaven, ready to assist her was the combined 
moneyed interests of the globe, the petty states of Central Europe werw 
volunteering their hireling multitudes to crush Republicanism in the New 
World, and in fact all those governments whose foundations rested upon 
the neck of the people were united to effect it, lest the rising light of the 
west might illumine their ruins. 

And the other side what was it? The side of humanity, liberty, 
heaven. Where the power to confound the mighty influence I have refer- 
red to? Who was to raise the sword and marshal the hosts of the right? 
Who the champion to receive the gauntlet a world had flung down, to com- 
bat the aims of a continent, the machinations of its diplomatists, the long 
arm of its vengeance and omnipotence, and overturn the prejudices time had 
engendered in the hearts of mankind? Who secure and estabhsh in the 
face of a hundred despotisms a principle and a government that would 
sweep them in time from the catagory of nations and hurl them into their 
merited oblivion? 



THE YOUXG LAWYER. 45 

It was 3,000,000 of people without goverument, funds, arms, union, 
discipline, leaders or experience, in whose hearts, cold as they were, lurked 
many affections for the mother country, many misgivings as to the course 
they should adopt, thirteen feeble colonies, sprigs of the various trees of 
Europe planted upon a new coast in the bosom of an untried wilderness 
girt by the ocean and the savage, pervaded with intestine commotions, 
jealousies and suspicions that sprung directly from the nationalities that 
placed them there, in whose very presence and by whose very fireside sat 
the subtle Tory and the rabid traitor. 

This the power to oppose, this to redeem, who would dare to dream of 
their success, the oppressor smiled as he gazed upon this pitiful spectacle, 
the philanthropist trembled as he predicted their certain fate, as he ex- 
claimed: 

'•Dark will their doom be. 
Darker still their immortality of ill." 

But the God of Battles presided in their councils. The inspirations 
of eternity inspired their souls, the destiny of mankind bouyed up their pur- 
pose, the pale hand of the unnumbered dead who had perished in their 
cause was reaching to their hearts through the dim alcove of vanished 
ages from every patriot shrine and hero's tomb, the crushed spirit of Ro- 
man and Grecian independence was whispering in their ears and lifting 
the curtain of their dreams. Every drop of blood shed, every tear fallen, 
every sigh heaved to heaven, every groan and hour of suffering lost and fear 
felt. Freedom from the morning of creations was firing their souls to ac- 
tion, the shades of vanished republics and the fate of untold generations 
their own posterity, the safety and sanctity of their homes and altars, were 
moving them on to conquer or to die, and the colonists became united as one 
man and George Washington was the commander and chief of the Ameri- 
can forces. 

Let us pause and contemplate that lofty character with whose im- 
mortal name the heavens resound and the earth re-echoes. Look at him gaz- 
ing calmly in the diabolic face of tyranny, world denounced as a rebel, 
branded as a conspirator with a price upon his head. He wrought order from 
confusion, substance from chaos, union and discipline from the rude and dis- 
organized masses, many were his triaJs, dark and gloomy were the clouds 
that beset his pathway, even his God seemed to desert him and the star 
of his destiny grew dim and sunk toward the region of perpetual night. 
Often hope seemwl lost as his countrymen crouched in despair at his feet. 

He saw their blood upon the frozen earth marking to blood hounds in 
pursuit where they trod, he heard the howling winds and merciless stornaa 
chilling the hearts of his half naked soldiers, the groans of his empoverishod 
and dying comrades loaded every brtH»ze of heaven; he found his repeated 



46 HAMILTON WARD. 

petitions for aid at the public treasury neglected, and it wrung his heart 
with agony as liberty's defenders were crying for bread. He knew that he 
was encompassed with foes treble his number, and in his own camp, stab- 
bing at his reputation and endeavoring to alienate from him his own 
soldiers were the traitor and the spy. 

Weak in number, cursed by famine and starvation, goaded by the 
hisses of tyrants and cries of the oppressed and his country gazing on him 
and her fate at his disposal, Great God what a position. 

But by magic the Delaware was crossed, his cannon was thundering 
at Trenton and Princeton, the star of the patriots brightened. The wave 
that threatened to destroy them rolled back to submerge the wretches who 
sent it. 

With a prayer to God and an appeal to his countrymen with efforts 
that sink into significance all the achievements of ancient or modern times, 
he came, he saw, he conquered. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. 
Peace was declared and the principle of man's liberty established at last. 

He had no predecessor or model, no equal or successor. History re- 
veals no character in which all that was great and good was so thoroughly 
developed, so harmoniously blended. He stands alone, occupying an exalted 
station in the estimation of his countrymen and all mankind, the loftiest 
niche in the temple of fame. No language can describe his acts and sac- 
rifices or do justice to his name. No man can pronounce his eulogy and far 
be it from me to attempt it; it is beyond the power of human experience or 
conception. 

That eulogy is pronounced by all We see and hear, by the universal 
applause of mankind and the deep veneration felt in every patriot's heart. 
Every monument consecrated to freedom, every town, city, improvement 
by all the evidences of wealth and prosperity, by the blooming fields, fertile 
vales, the church, the school house, the thriving community and intelligent 
citizens in our beautiful land in every fear that quakes the despot's heart, 
in every acclamation that loads the sky, in our institutions, laws, influence, 
in the grandeur of our name and the splendor of our destiny, his eulogy is 
pronounced. 

Beside the slumbering Potomac he sleeps — the hero sleeps — his hum- 
ble tomb is the Mecca of the free, but his name will never die, it will 
brighten as it descends to the latest posterity, and should our country ever 
fall, should these pillars of her glory ever pass aAvay, and she disappear 
from the list of nations, the last gasp of her defenders and the dying watch- 
word of her heroes will be the sacred name of Washington, "first in peace, 
first in war, first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

And those who fought by his side bore his troubles, rejoiced in his 
success, wept at his defeats, who watched for every word and obeyed with 
alacrity every decree that fell fi-om his endeared lips. The heroes of that 



4TH OF JULY SPEECH 1855. 47 

war, the bold, hardy men that went forth from the field, the cabin and thfl 
fireside to defend this country and purchase the boom of civil and religious 
liberty, the men who willingly embraced sufferini;, exposure and death, gave 
up all the pleasures of home and happiness which we so highly prize, met de- 
struction with a shout of triumph in the cause so sweet and so vast; the 
20,000 who perished in that eventful struggle without a stone to mark the 
spot where their hallowed ashes slumber — who fought, bled and died not for 
fame, glory or mercenary ends, but for their whole country and nothing but 
their country, the unrecorded masses whose names do not come down to u», 
whose deeds are only rehearsed when the grand result is given, what shall 
we say of them? Too often in our applause for the leaders whose prominent 
positions gave them a place on the scroll of time, we forget the common sol- 
dier, the bone and sinew of the camp, the man of humble life and toil who 
faced the foe and the red hot missiles of death, who faltered not but sus- 
tained the standard of the country where the fight was thickest and the 
battle hottest, who bore the wounded to his couch, the departed to the 
grave — of those I would speak. Let us turn our memories back to them, 
kind friends. 

We have read the tale of their glory in our school boy days, our hearts 
have rendered them a thousand tributes. In the hour when all was young 
and bright with us we listened to the story of their sacrifices and achieve- 
ments on the home altar and in the chimney corner from venerable lips 
and saw grey locks grow young again at the recital. 

It is said by a great man that heroes strew the soil of every state 
from Main to Georgia, aye, their spirits are hovering over this assembly 
to-day, they are watching us from beyond the clouds, they are clustering in 
blest communion in the spirit land. Let their example inspire your hearts, 
he the talisman of your lives, teach it to your children, let it be with and 
guide you in every act of your life, fill your souls with purity, guide your 
acts in the Cabinet, in the Legislature, in the primary political meetings 
and at the ballot box. 

Remember it when corruption and demagogism sever you from your 
duty, stamp it with indelible characters on your soul, and should danger, 
menace or treason attempt to sap the foundations of our government, let 
it nerve you with the power and daring of patriots and warriors to strike 
the reprobate to the earth. 

Remember them, for they gave you the privilige of this day, they 
consecrated the soil on which you tread, transmitted unimpaired to you 
the responsibilities and the immunities which belong to all men, enjoyed by 
you alone; they gave you this freedom, nourish and preserve it, keep it 
pure and untainted, hand it down thus to those who come after you. the 
memory, the devotion, the deathless gratitude we owe to those who: 



48 HAMILTON WARD. 

"Fell devoted but undying, 
Their very names the gales seem sighing, 
The waters murmur of their name, 
The woods are peopled with their fame. 
The silent pillar, lone and gray. 
Claims kindred with their sacred clay; 
Their spirits wrap the dusky mountain, 
Their memory sparkles in the fountain 
The meanest rill, the mightiest river 
Roll mingled with their fame forever." 

These were the days when the American people beheved 
that God had charged them with a duty toward humanity, 
a duty which the modern spirit of "commerciahsm" does not 
fulfill, and the change in our national attitude is well illus- 
trated by our present neglect of the observance of the 4th of 
July. Then men asked of a stranger who are you ? Now the 
question is : Who do you work for? The day of individuals 
and the day of combinations — the day of patriots and the 
day of machines. 

Hamilton Ward rapidly grew in consequence in the 
county, and owing to his genial and unassuming manners 
made many friends. In 1856 he stumped the county for 
John C. Fremont, Republican candidate for President. 

In this year a new township was erected in Allegany 
County from parts of the towns of Alfred and Amity by 
Chapter 807 of the Laws of 1857, passed November, 1856, 
and the inhabitants of the new township decided to call it 
Ward, after Hamilton Ward, which name it still bears. It 
lies directly east of the town of Amity and contains no vil- 
lages. Out of a population of less than 800 it contributed 
eighty-seven soldiers to the Civil War. 

Mr. Ward frequently expressed the wish that he might 
some day be able to erect a town hall in this town, and pre- 
sent it to the people, and it is to be hoped that this desire 
may in the future be carried out. 

In 1856 he became a candidiate for District Attorney. 
The political leaders of the county resided in Angelica and 
most of the lawyers were there. It was an iron clad custom 
to allow the offices to alternate between two assembly dis- 



TiiE YOUNG LAWYER. 49 

triets, north and south, into which the county was divided. 
The southern district was entitled to the office, and Mr, 
Ward began his first campaign for himself. He rode over 
the countr)^ and was nominated on the Whig ticket. Josiah 
Rathburn of Belmont, a Whig leader, rendered him much 
assistance. His election by a substantial majority followed 
on the 4th day of November, 1856, his vote being 6,426 to 
1,672 for his highest adversary. 

Very little record exists of this period of his life. His 
principal work as District Attorney consisted in convicting 
a gang of thieves who had taken up their headquarters in 
the town of Ward. They were known as the Way-Powell 
gang and were among the last of the frontier ruffians. They 
helped pass stolen property from other stations, and when 
caught were preparing an issue of bogus money. Their 
leader had a singular disguise. His hair and beard were 
very long and were so trimmed that by tucking them under 
his collar he appeared like a man with short hair and beard, 
but when a disguise was required they were pulled out, cov- 
ering the owners features. This man was sent to State 
Prison for a long term of years, threatening to kill Mr. Ward 
if he ever got out. 

At the expiration of his first term, the rule of rotation 
in office heretofore spoken of, being in force, Mr. Ward was 
not a candidate for renomination. 

For some time a discussion had been kept up through- 
out the county regarding the wisdom of moving the County 
Seat from Angelica to some point on the Erie Railroad, 
then and for many years the only railroad in the county. 
Legislation had been attempted and finally in 1856 the 
County Board of Supervisors, by a vote of 17 to 1 1 resolved 
that an effort should be made to remove the County Seat 
to Belvidere, a station on the railroad two and a half miles 
north of Belmont. No legislation was secured and the reso- 
lution was renewed in the following year. Finally a commis- 
sion of three members was appointed by the Legislature to 
select a new County Seat at some convenient point on the 
railroad. They vi.^ted Belmont, Belvidere and other points 
and finallv decided in favor of Belmont, which became the 



50 HAMILTON WARD. 

County Seat by Chapter 84 of tlie Laws of 1858. The result 
was largely brought about by the indefatigable efiforts 01 
Colonel Lucian May and Hamilton Ward. The people of 
Angelica were much dissatisfied with this result, and in i860, 
by Chapter 489 of the Laws of that year another act was 
passed directing that one-half of the terms of the County 
and Supreme Courts be held in AngeHca. This situation 
existed until 1892 when by Chapter 521 the Act of i860 
was repealed, and the old Court House at Angelica sold to 
the town. 

In i860 Mrs. Ward's health broke down and she was 
obliged to spend most of her time in Buffalo under the care 
of a physician, Mr. Ward's expenses on this account and be- 
cause of his widening political interests were heavy and he 
was considerably in debt, and this fact in connection with his 
wife's illness determined him not to volunteer in the Union 
Army. However he did all that any man could do at home. 
He engaged a substitute, although not drafted, and in the 
fall of i860 was appointed by the Governor one of the Mili- 
tary Committee for the 30th Senatorial District, and as a 
member of this committee was instrumental in raising the 
130th and i6oth Regiments N. Y. State Volunteers. He 
was always regarded as a friend by the soldiers and his sub- 
sequent actions justified this feeling, as will more fully ap- 
pear. 

On the 15th day of February, 1861, on motion of Hon. 
Alfred Ely he was admitted to the U. S. Supreme Court. 

In 1862 the work of the Military Committee became 
more serious. It was then seen that the contest was not one 
between the Government of the North and the Government 
of the South, but that it was a life and death struggle be- 
tween the people of those sections, and the way in which the 
people of the North faced and mastered the situation is best 
shown by the following address to the People of Allegany 
County by the Military Committee, and the report of the 
Committee's proceedings: 



THE YOUNG LAWYER. 51 

ATTENTION, VOLUNTEERS! 

CUBA. July 23, 18G2. 
Editors of The True Patriot: 

For the inforroation of the citizens of Allegany, I send you for publi- 
cation the quota of volunteers required to be raised in the County under the 
recent call for troops. 

The Military Committee for this Senate District met at Geneseo yes- 
terday and recommended Major-General Fullerton as Commander of the 
Regimental Camp, and by resolution requested the Governor to change it» 
location to Portage, which will undoubtedly be done. 

Everything is now ready for the prompt action of the People in the 
several towns. By the time a sufficient number of volunteers are raised 
to be forwarded to the camp, the commanding officer will be ready to re- 
ceive them. The people are appealed to by the highest considerations to 
respond to this call— not only the claims of patriotism and our imperilled 
army looking hopefully for aid, but every person capable of bearing arms 
has a direct personal interest in raising these troops; for at an early day, 
if not obtained, the liberal bounties ofifered for volunteers will cease and 
drafting begin. 

Let the prominent citizens of each town go at once earnestly to work. 
There will no difficulty in persons who raise the requisite number of volun- 
teers to entitle them thereto, obtaining the recommendations of the commit- 
tee for commissions. 

Y^'ours respectfully, 

M. B. CHAMPLAIN, of the Com. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MILITARY COMMITTEE FOR THE 
30TH SENATE DISTRICT. 

At a meeting of said committee, convened at the Court House in Gen- 
eseo on the 22d day of July instant, at 11 o'clock A. M., pursuant to notice 
—Hon. Charles Colt was called to the Chair and Hon. J. B. Halstead was 
chosen secretary. 

The following members of said committee appeared and answered to 
their names: 

LIVINGSTON COUNTY- Hon. Charles Colt, Charles H. Carroll, 
A. A. Hendee, .Tomes Faulkner. A. Bradner, McNeil Seymour, Alfred Bell, 
Gen. W. S. Fullerton. and W. E. Lauderdale. 

WYOMING COUNTY— Hon. J. B. Halsted, H. L. Comstock, L. W. 
Thayer and .John B. Skinner 2d. 

ALLEGANY COUNTY— Hon. M. Grover and Hon. M. B. Cham- 
plain. 



o2 HAMILTON WARD. 

On motion of Gen. L. W. Thayer, it was 

Resolved, That each county have an equal representation on the com- 
mittee, and that the members in attendance present the names of the ad- 
ditional committeemen for :)ppointment. 

After recess of fifteen minutes, the following names to fill the com- 
mittee from Allegany were presented: Alfred Lockhart, William Colweli, 
Luman B. Eliiott, Hamilton Ward, Jeremiah Hatch and Samuel Swain. 

Wyoming County presented the following names: Charles O. Shepard, 
John B. Folsom, Wm. Bristol, Duncan Cameron, Marcus Willner. 

On motion of A. A. Hendee, it was 

Resolved, That the committee proceed to recommend a Regimental 
Commandant to take charge of the camp until the regiment is formed and 
a Colonel duly appointed. 

Upon a viva voce vote, Major-General W. S. Fullerton was duly 
elected, which election was made unanimous. 

On motion of Mr. Grover, it was 

Resolved. That the Commander-in-Chief be earnestly requested to 
change the location of the Regimental Camp from Geneseo to Portagt* 
Station. 

All the committee from Allegany and Wyoming, and four from Liv- 
ingston, voted in the affirmative, making ten in favor to four in the nega- 
tive from Livingston county. 

Hon. A.. A. Hendee, of Geneseo, was elected corresponding secretary 
of the committee. 

On motion, it was 

Resolved, That the committee of each county proceed to select suit- 
able persons in their respective counties for recruiting officers to be recom- 
mended for appointment. 

It was further 

Resolved, That all future meetings of the committee be held at Port- 
age Station. 

The committee was ably and eloquently addressed during its session 
by the Chairman. Hons. M. Grover, .T. B. Halstead, M. B. Champlain, L. 
W. Thayer, Charles H. Carroll, James Faulkner, and others. 

The committee then adjourned to meet at Portage Station on the 
30th inst., at 12 o'clock, noon. 

CHAS. COLT, Chairman. 
J. B. HALSTEAD, Secretary. 

On a notice to the Town Supervisors in October, 1862, 
to produce a list of persons enlisted, Mr. Ward's name ap- 
pears as Secretary of the Committee. 

In the fall of 1862 he again became a candidate for the 



FIKST CONGIII^SSIONAL XOMIXATION. 53 

nomination for District Attorney, and was nominated by ac- 
clamation on the "Union" ticket, as the RepubHcan ticket 
at that time was styled, and was elected by a majority of 
thirty-three hundred, Nov. 4th, 1862. 

Mrs. Vv^ard continued to be an invalid during the year 
1863. 

In the year 1864, while still occupying the office of Dis- 
trict Attorney he became a candidate for Congress in what 
was then the 27th N.Y. Congressional District, comprised of 
the counties of Allegany, Chemung and Steuben. The con- 
test was spirited, and was only decided in the convention. 
The proceedings of the convention were as follows ; as ap- 
pears from the Angelica Reporter of September 28th : 

CONGRESSIONAL CONVENTION. 

The Convention was organized at the Osborne House, Hornellsville, 
on the 20th inst. by choosing Hon. Wilkes Angel, chairman, and Harlo 
Hakes and G. McDonald, secretaries. 

The following delegates presented their credentials and took their 
neats: 

Allegany Connty, 1st Dist. — Wilkes Angel, Christopher Jennings, Na- 
thaniel Bell. 2d Dist.— Riifus L. Colwell, Alonzo B. Coon, ,Tohn L. Russel. 

Steuben County, 1st Dist.— E. R. Kasson. J. H. Butler, Owen Riley, 
Jr. 2d Dist.— S. T. Hayt, William Moore, Wm. M. Sherwood. 3d Dist.— 
Harlow Hakes, James P. Clark, E. G. Durfy. 

Chemung County — .John I. Nicks, F. M. .Jones, J. McDonald, E. A. 
Owen. 

On motion of E. R. Kasson, the convention proceeded to an informal 
ballot for candidate for Member of Congress, which resulted as follows: 

Hamilton Ward, 7; Tracy Beadle, 4, and A. C. Morgan, G. Blank 2. 

Whereupon a formal ballot was taken, which resulted iu giving, for 

Hamilton Ward, 9; Tracy Beadle, 4, and A. C. Morgan, G. 

And after twenty-three ballotings, with the same result, there were 
finally cast for Hamilton Ward, 13; A. C. Morgan, G. 

The nomination of Mr. Ward was then made unanimous. 

On motion of E. G. Durfy, the chair appointed the following commit- 
tee to report resolutions: 

E. G. Durfy, N. D. Boll, and J. McDonald, who reported the follow- 
ing resolution, which was unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the Convention fully approve of and commend tha 
course pursued by Hon. R. R. Van Valkenburgh, our present representa- 



54 HAMILTON WARD. 

tive in Congress, for the able and honorable manner in which he has dis- 
charged his duties as such representative, and the zeal and fidelity with 
which he has, in the councils of the Nation, sustained the reputation of our 
district, and the integrity of our country. 

On motion, the chair appointed the following Congressional Committee: 
C. G. Fairman, Rodney Dennis, George Pratt, George S. Ellas, C. F. 
Dickinson, A. N. Cole. On motion, 

Resolved, That the proceedings be published in the Republican papers 
throughout the district. 

WILKES ANGEL, Chairman. 
HARLOW HAKES, 
J. M. DONALD, 

Secretaries. 

Mr. Ward's nomination was secured by the Chemung 
delegates voting for him. 

The Democrats nominated a soldier who had lost an 
arm in the service, Col. A. J. McNett of the 141st N. Y. V. 
I., a resident of Belmont, hoping thereby to secure the sol- 
diers' vote and made a strenuous effort, assisted somewhat 
by a defeated Republican candidate for the nomination, to 
defeat Mr. Ward, but, after a hot campaign, in which he 
visited and spoke in almost every town in his district, Mr. 
W'ard carried Allegany County by a majority of 3,438, Steu- 
ben by 2,169 ^^^^^ Chemung by 162, running about 300 be- 
hind Lincoln. 

This Congressional election to a man of but 35 years 
of age was indeed a high honor, and especially so in those 
days when every session of Congress determined whether 
the Government should live or die, when the great ques- 
tions of State rights were settled once and for all, and the 
duty of the nation to each and every citizen at length estab- 
lished. In the three Congresses following 1864 the "con- 
flicts of the constitution" were decided and the course and 
destiny of the nation laid out. How welcome must such an 
opportunity, as was given by this nomination, have been ! 

By a strange freak of fate this triumph followed close 
upon the heels of a great peril and substantial loss. In July, 
1864, Hamilton Ward with his wife, undertook to visit rela- 
tives in Michigan and to see the wonderful western lakes. 
After passing through Lakes Superior and Huron they 



BlJIlMNfJ OF THE UACIXE. 55 

sailed from Detroit on tlieir return on the steam propeller 
Racine ,a boat belonging to the Western Transit Company, 
which carried, as did most boats in those days, both freight 
and passengers. The boat had a deck load of high wines, 
and some of the crew tapped one of the casks — became in- 
toxicated and forgot to return the plug, with the result that 
the escaping spirits reached the fires and caused a conflagra- 
tion which destroyed the ship. 

The following statement of the occurrance appeared in 
the RufYalo Morning Express of Aug. 13th, 1864: 

THE BURNING OF THE RACINE.— The surviving passengers of 
the propeller Racine deem it proper to make the following statement rela- 
tive to the burning of that vessel, that it may be known to the public: 

The propeller Racine was one of the Western Transportation Com- 
pany's boats, running between Buffalo and Chicago, and was returning frona 
Chicago. The boat was heavily laden with produce and high wines. The 
whole number of passengers, officers, and crew, was 30. The following is 
a list of the passengers lost, and of the crew lost and saved: 
PASSENGERS LOST. 

Peter Warner, Karp River, Michigan, and two others, names un- 
known, who took passage at Detroit. 

PASSENGERS SAVED. 

Mrs. Ellen Burke, Milwaukee. 

Mrs. M. Waldron, Chicago, Illinois. 

H. Ward and lady, Belmont, N. Y. 

•Tames Greenwood, Boston, Mass. 

Wm. S. Wright, New York. 

Levi Richardson, Detroit, Mich. 

J. S. Blossom, Burlington, Wis. 

John Allen, Indiana. 

S. H. Rubins, Buffalo, N. Y. 

CREW LOST. 

John, Manaher, second mate. 
Alexander McLean, watchman. 
Patrick Lynche, deckhand. 
Thomas Welch, deckhand. 
Peter Mullen, deckhand. 
Mike Powers, deckhand. 
Jack Leary. deckhand. 
Edward (surname unknown). 



56 HAMILTON WARD. 

The propeller left Detroit about 5 P. M., on the 9th of August, took 
wood at Maiden, C. W., and left there for Buffalo at 8 P. M. At 2:30 A. 
M., on the 10th, when about 12 miles above Roundeau, a fire was discov- 
ered near the boiler, just a few feet from the furnace, as near as we can 
ascertain. Upon alarm being given, the captain and first engineer took 
measures to extinguish the fire and prevent explosion of the boiler; but it 
was found impossible to subdue the flames when the officers arrived. 

The passengers were then called. A panic immediately seized a por- 
tion of the passengers and crew, who, upon their own responsibility, seized 
one of the yawls — the men jumping into the boat confusedly; and when the 
boat was near the water, the steamer making eight or nine miles an hour, 
they cut the tackle and she immediately swamped, and was crushed under 
the wheel, and all in her lost except the second engineer, who was found 
clinging to the bottom of the boat. The flames rapidly spread to the upper 
deck, when the captain ordered the jolly boat to be lowered, and he, with 
the assistance of the first mate, first engineer and passenger Wm. T. 
Wright, in the midst of the flames (as the boat was surounded by the fire) 
with almost superhuman power at a great personal risk, lowered the boat 
and brought her forward. The ladies were then put into the boat. The life 
boat was then lowered. Nearly all the passengers and crew crawled into 
the boat. By great exertions of the captain and others who remained on 
the burning vessel after the boats were lowered, such valuables as were in 
reach and could be safely put in the boats were so placed. Provisions were 
also placed in the boat for the subsistence of the passengers. The compasses 
were secured; life planks, doors, stools and other articles that could be of 
nse in case the boats should be swamped, were thrown over. About 250 
barrels of flour and high wines were also cast over. All was done that 
doing human could do to save life and property. 

Passengers Wright and Greenwood were cool and active throughout, 
and did their utmost to assist the officers. The captain at last stood alone 
on the burning deck; the lurid flames had nearly enveloped him, the jolly 
boat was attached to the vessel by a single line — in the midst of smoke, fire 
and ruin, he stood and unfurled the Stars and Stripes, shouted "Freedom 
for ever," then gliding down the rope and entering the boat he said: "We 
are afloat, if we perish we will go down under the old flag." We then 
drifted away over the water. Directions were given to remain as near the 
wreck as possible, as we would be more likely to be seen in the light of the 
burning steamer. At about 4 o'clock we saw a light, and soon our ears were 
greeted by the joyful sound of a steam whistle and shortly after the pro- 
peller "Avon," Capt. Frazer Smith, rescued us from our perilous position. 
From Capt. Smith and the men and officers of his boat we received the ut- 
most attention. They did all in their power to make us comfortable. Boats 
were sent out and search made for the missing. The burning wreck was 



BURNING OF THE RACINE. 57 

taken in tow and Capt. Smith even exposed liis own boat to get the vessel 
ashore. 

Wo cannot close this painfnl narrative without paying a personal tri- 
bute to our captain. From the first to the last of this trying ordeal he was 
calm, collected, and stood the master spirit of the scene. Nothing was omit- 
ted; the safety of life and property alone seemed to animate him, risking his 
life in many ways. We have for him the most unbounded affection and 
respect. At the time of the lowering of the life boat, and saving property 
afterwards, the captain enforced obedience to orders by presenting a re- 
volver, but no other officer had a weapon, as reported in one of the morn- 
ing papers. The first engineer, Thomas Haig, nobly performed his duty, 
showing himself a hero and a man. God bless noble Tom! The boiler did 
not burst, as at first stated. We say nothing of those who had charge of 
the machinery, and who were on watch at the time the fire commenced. 
Some have gone to their long account; others yet live. 

We deem it proper to say that as to the origin of the fire, it should 
have a rigid examination. 

Mr. and Mrs. H. Ward, 
Mrs. Ellen Burke, 
Mrs. M. Waldrou, 
S. II. Rubins, 
lievi Richardson, 
Jas. Greenwood, 
Wm. S. Wright, 
J. S. Blossom. 
Buffalo, August 12, 1864. 

Those who escaped lost everything. Their boat leaked, 
and was with difficulty kept afloat until they were rescued, 
as set forth, most of the passengers, including Hamilton 
Ward and his wife being in their night clothes. They were 
finally landed in BufYalo. They then hurried to Belmont only 
to discover that in their absence Mr. Ward's law office had 
been burned, together v.ith other buildings in the village, 
and that his library, furniture and papers had been totally 
destroyed. All that was left was a cow, as the residence at 
that time belonged to Peter Hamilton Ward, and the morn- 
ing after his return Mr. Ward started for the farm where 
he had put the cow to pasture on his departure. He found 
her in a gully, heels up, covered with crows. There was 
nothing more to lose, and it is said he found comfort in 
that solitary fact and whistled as he came back to the village. 



CHAPTER V. 



In Congress. 

In the month of December, 1865, Hamilton Ward re- 
moved with his wife to the city of Washington, and took up 
his residence on 12th Street. 

Among the famous men of the nation who were mem- 
bers of this Congress were James G. Blaine of Maine, 
Justine S. Morrill of Vermont, Oak Ames, Nathaniel Banks, 
George S. Boutwell, Wm. B. Washburn of Massachusetts, 
Roscoe Conkling of New York, Samuel J. Randall and 
Thadius Stevens of Pennsylvania, Rutherford B. Hayes, 
Robert C. Schenck, John A. Bingham and James A. Gar- 
field of Ohio, Michael C. Kerr, Daniel W. Voorhees and 
Schuyler Colefax of Indiana, Elihu B. Washburn and Shelby 
M. Collum of Illinois, William B. Allison and James F, 
Wilson of Iowa, Philitas Sawyer of Wisconsin and William 
Windom of Minnesota. Schuyler Colefax, who, as before 
appears, was related to Hamilton Ward, was chosen speaker 
against Mr. James Brooks, the Democratic candidate, by a 
vote of 139 to 36. 

Mr. Ward was placed upon thefollowing committees : On 
Claims, the chairman being Columbus Delano of Ohio ; on 
Accounts, of which Edward H. Rollins of New Hampshire 
was chairman. He had, however, not waited for the organi- 
zation of the House to commence to discharge the duties he 
felt he owed his constituents, coming as he did from a por- 
tion of the country that had contributed so lavishly to the 
Union's cause. On Dec. 11, 1865, he made his first appear- 
ance on the floor of Congress and introduced his first bill 
which provided for the giving of lands and money as a 
bounty to U. S. soldiers who had served in the late Rebel- 



IN CONGRESS 18C>5. 59 

lion. This was referred to the Committee on Mihtary Af- 
fairs, to be appointed and ordered printed. It pro- 
vided in detail that the soldiers who had volunteered or en- 
listed prior to June 5th, 1863, who had served for not more 
than three months should receive 40 acres of land, and in an 
increasing ratio, so that it was provided that those who 
had served over two years should receive 160 acres of land 
and $100.00 in money. And it was further provided that 
the provisions of the Act should apply to colored soldiers 
who had not at this time been protected by the constitu- 
tional amendments. This bill was the first of the sort in- 
troduced and greatly pleased the soldiers and loyal people 
of the North. 

On December i8th, Mr. Ward introduced the following 
resolution: *. 

"Whoreaa. Certain inhabitants of the Territory of Utah, in violation 
of the laws of the United State.s, have been and still are sustaining the 
abominable system of polygamy, and the numbers who practice it, and the 
crime and demoralization consequent thereon, are largely on the increase; 
and whereas for reasons not understood, the law against polygamy has 
not been enforced; and, in the judgment of this House, this great and re- 
maining barbarism of our age and country should be swept, like its twin 
system, slavery, from the Territories of the Republic; and means, adequate 
to that end should be adopted; Therefore, 

"Resolved, That the Committee on Territories be instructed to 
inquire and ascertain what means, civil or military, may lawfully be re- 
sorted to to effectually eradicate this evil from the land, and what legislation 
is needed, if any, to effect that object, and what reasons exist why the laws 
against polygamy have not been executed; and also to ascertain whether 
the United States officials in said Territory are seeking to enforce the laws 
and to inquire into their conduct generally, so far as relates to the dis- 
charge of their public duties in relation to this system, and that said Com- 
mittee have leave to report by bill or otherwise." 

On January loth, 1866, Mr, Ward introduced the fol- 
lowing resolution, v/hich was agreed to by the House: 

"Whereas, It is alleged that the form of contract to be entered into 
between the freemen and their former masters in the State of South Caro- 
lina, has been adopted by certain government officials on the one side, as- 
suming to represent the freedmen, and their former masters on the other 
side, whereby, amoug other things, it is provided that the freedmen be- 



«)f) HAMILTON WARD. 

oouu's the servuDt of the master for the period of one ye.ar; that he shal! 
not be iiern^itted to leave the premises where he is bound to labor, or to 
receive \isits from relatives or friends thereon during said time without the 
master's consent, nor without such a consent to keep any poultry, stock, 
etc., during the time; that if said freedman is absent for two days 
without the master's consent, no matter for what cause, he for- 
feits his whole year's pay, part of which goes to his master; that if any 
team, horses, mules, or farming utensils are injured while being used by 
the freedman such damage shall be deducted from their wages, it not being 
specified that such liabiHty should only be incurred when the freedman 
was at fault, and in case of any breach of any of the provisions of the con- 
tract by any servant he shall be liable to forfeit all his wages and be dis- 
missed from the plantation; and whereas it is alleged that said freedmen 
are being induced to enter into such contract; therefore 

"Resolved, That the select committee on freedmen be instructed to 
inqnire into the truth of said allegations, and also to ascertain what con- 
tracts, if any, are being forced upon the freedmen of other states and to 
report by bill or otherwise." 

On January 12th Mr. Ward submitted the following 
resolution: 

"Resolved, That the Committee on Ways and Means be instructed 
to inquire into the expediency of i-epealiug the internal revenue tax on 
paper, and upon all bibles, testaments and religious books and publications, 
and upon all school books used in schools, academies and colleges." This 
was immediately passed. 

His first speech was dehvered on January 25th on the 
subject of an amendment to the constitution, and is as 
follows : 

"Mr. Speaker, I do not suppose there is a Union man on this floor but 
desires that some amendment to the Constitution should be secured that 
shall avoid in future the patent injustice and glaring defect which now 
exists in the basis of representation in the Southern States. 

"The fact that one South Carolinian, whose hands are red with the 
blood of fallen patriots, and whose skirts are reeking with the odors of 
Columbia and Andcrsonville, will have a voice as potential in these halls 
as two and a half Vermont soldiers who have come back from the grandest 
battle fields in history maimed and scarred in the contest with South Caro- 
lina traitors in their efforts to destroy this Government, cries aloud for 
remedy, and it depends upon Congress to inaugurate this remedy. And the 
country expects and demands from the large Union majority here some 
united action, and not to fritter away our strenccth in useless divisions and 
accomplish nothing. 



SrEEClI ox (X)NSTITIJ'I'1().\AL AMENDMENT ISCC. 01 

"We must be Kiiiued by a spirit of compromise and b.irraony. No 
nmtndmont can be presented entirely free from objection, and that may 
not bear unequally in some respects; but in the spirits of our fathers who 
framed the immo' tal instrument we are seeking to change, let us who have 
a common object at heart strive faithfully to agree, each section willing, 
if necessary, to yield a little for the general good. 

'"I am iVee to say that to my mind that there are s<'rious objections to 
the amendment reported by the committee. Still, if nothing better can be 
agreed upon, I will support it upon the principal that it is better than no 
amendment at all. Numerous amendments have been proposed, many of 
which I deem so extraordinary as to be entirely out of question. There are, 
however, a class of amendments that purpose to base representation upon 
male suffrage simply, l^et us examine for a moment the effect of this. 

"Those who vote will, of course, in all cases be the direct agents in se- 
lecting the representative; but what becomes of that large class of non- 
voting tax-payers that are found in every section? Are thoy in no manner 
to be represented? They certainly should be enumerated in making up the 
whole number of those entitled to a representative. If that is not done, 
then, indeed, we have reversed the progress of nearly a century, and the 
doctrine that our fathers fought against and overthrew in the Revolutionary 
struggle is at last asserted in this country and made part of the funda- 
mental law of the land, namely taxation without representation. 

"The amendment reported by the committee adopts the right prin- 
»ipl'^. and is good enough as far as it goes; but it can readily be seen that 
if the poor whites of the South, or the blacks, are excluded for any other 
(>stensible reason than that of "race or color," or if no reason is given for 
the exclusion, and the law excluding them; the same difficulty exists as now. 
and the object sought to be obtained is defeated. Do you suppose that 
these "whitewashed traitors" with the infernal ingenuity which maintained 
the great rebellion against the grandest ai'my and the most mighty power 
on earth for four long years will not invent some scheme, if the amend- 
ment as it now stands prevails, to keep a down-trodden people whom they 
hate away from power and all means of elevation, and yet, true to their 
old habit of appropriating the use of these people without compensation, 
use their numbers as a basis of representation with which to get them- 
selves into Congress? They will readily publish some ground of exclusion 
from suffrage other than of "race or color." They may require them to 
read and write, and yet keep alive the black code against disseminating 
knowledge among them. Indeed, they may require them to have a college 
education or something else equally absurd. Perhaps the fact of their 
undoubted loyalty to the government will be a ground of exclusion. 

"It is no answer to say that the same ground of exclusion must be 
applied to whites as well as blacks. This does not necessarily follow. Sup- 



62 HAMILTON WARD. 

pose it were so, what consideration has the Southern oligarchy ever showa 
for the "poor white trash?" With their contempt for labor, their known 
desire for landed aristocracy and the privileged class, how ready would 
they be to exclude the masses by some property or other qualification from 
power, to the end that thoy might grasp it all. 

"How, then, yon ask, shall this be remedied? I answer by simply 
also excluding from the basis of representation all those who are deprived 
of suffrage by reason of a property or tax qualification, or any other quali- 
fication not heretofore recognized as a qualification of suffrage in the state 
where the qualification is applied; so that no subterfuge could be adopted 
to defeat the purposes of the amendment, and so that a state would have 
the choice simply, as we desire it should, of enfranchising its people or not 
having them counted in the basis of representation; and thus the tax-payer 
of the state is not deprived by the Federal Constitution of representation 
absolutely, as in the other plan I have referred to; but the excepted classes 
are made dependent upon State action alone, the State having power at any 
time to remove the disability that the Constitution imposes. 

"My amendment consists in adding to the joint resolution proposed 
by the committee these words: 

"And provided further that all persons who are deprived of the elec- 
tive franchise in any State by reason of a tax or property qualification, or 
by reason of any other qualification, which (other qualification) was not 
in force on the 1st day of January, 1866, in the State where the same is 
applied, shall be excluded from the basis of representation. 

"So that the joint resolution shall read as follows: 

"Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union according to their 
respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, 
excluding Indians not taxed: Provided, That whenever the elective fran- 
chise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color, 
all persons of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of repre- 
sentation, AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That all persons who are de- 
prived of the elective franchise in any State by reason of a tax or property 
qualification, or by reason of any other qualification which (other quali- 
fication) was not in force on the 1st day of January, 1866, in the State 
where the same is applied, shall be excluded from the basis of representa- 
tion. 

"I ask the earnest consideration by the House of the amendment. It 
seems to meet all the difficulties that surround us, and I hope it will pre- 
vail. 

"It has been suggested that perhaps the loyal States will not pass the 
nmendment. In my judgment the loyal States will pass any article that 



I.N COMJKESS ]S()U. 63 

wo shall proposo to them from their adoption, aud make it the fundamental 
law of the land. 

"As for the disloyal States, those who stood in a hostile attitude 
against this Govei-nraeut aud have exerted all their power for its destruc- 
tion during the last four years, I have only to say that they have only the 
right which the criminal has who pleads before the judge for mercy. They 
will pass this amendment as they did the former." 

The wisdom of this amendment is amply demonstrated 
by the present course of the Southern States (1898-1900) 
in estabhshing- educational, property and heriditary qualifi- 
cations for the voters. 

On January 30th, 1866, he addressed the House briefly 
on the vSouthern loyalists as follows: 

"I concurred with much, reluctance in the report which comes from 
the committee. I felt that the loyal men of the South who have been faith- 
ful among the faithless, who have risked all and suffered all, and the wives 
and children of those who had perished in consequence of their devotion 
to the national flag, should in a measure be compensated for the losses 
v/hich they have sustained in consequence of their adherence to the Na- 
tional Government. But. sir, the magnitude of these losses, the difficulty 
of distinguishing at this tinse between loyal men and traitors, and the con- 
dition of our finances, admonished me that we should not open a door that 
would let in financial ruin, national disgrace and perhaps repudiation of the 
national debt. I felt that this cla.ss of claims might double the national 
debt, and so bring about results which all would depreciate — results so de- 
plorable, I am sure, that all would wish to avert them, and none more so 
than those patriotic men whose claims are so strong, and who have shown 
by their sacrifices that the national honor is very dear to them. 

"And so far as I am concerned I desire to say that I hope that this 
action, will not be regarded as final; that it shall not bind as a precedent 
those who shall come afterwards; but I hope that at no distant day, when 
the dark clouds that surround our national pathway shall have vanished, 
when the difficult work of reconstruction shall be done, when the nation no 
longer reels under a gigantic national debt, and when these loyal men shall 
be clearly ascertained, then justice shall be done to these people, and the na- 
tion shall reward them as they deserve." 

These speeches are self explanatory and cannot be 
added to by anything that can be said at the present time. 
They illustrate the zeal with which he took up his new la- 
bors, and the breadth and keenness of his mind. A new 



W HAMILTON WARD. 

member of Congress nowadays to become at once so active 
would be frowned upon by the older members, but no such 
sentiment affected the dehberations of the great Con- 
gresses of the Reconstruction period, whose members were 
almost all young men and comparatively new in the public 
service of a new party, confronting new conditions and com- 
pelled to resort to new remedies. 

On February lo, 1866, Hamilton Ward made one of the 
best speeches which he ever delivered, in the House. It is 
on the question of reconstruction, and is as follows: 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

The House resumed the consideration of the President's message, as 
ju Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. 

MR. WARD said: 

Mr. Speaker: I should not thrust myself upon the attention of the 
House at this time, could I with justice to myself remain silent. 

So varied and novel are the schemes of reconstruction and the resolu- 
tions upon that subject that are crowded through the House without oppor- 
tunity for debate, under the operation of the "previous question," that it 
seems neeessary for members who desire their true position understood upon 
this vexed question to take the opportunity offered for the discussion of the 
President's message, to do so. 

After so many great minds, at both ends of this Capitol, have ex- 
hausted so thoroughly all views and phases of this question, it will not be 
expected that I will advance anything new. I shall only express the earn- 
est, deeply fixed convictions of one of the humblest upon this floor, and you 
will receive them simply as such. Who can but tremble at the vast respon- 
sibility to our country, our countrymen, and to God, under which we rest 
as members of this Congress. 

Never before in the history of nations has a legislative body met 
charged with such duties and obligations as have been imposed upon us. 
We are legislating for the present and the future. The effect of our action 
will not be circuiuscrilied by our time and couutry alone: it will reach the 
svhole earth and the remotest generation. 

Ten million people, emerging from the chaos of war, stand before us 
powerless, disarmed, without government, without law, save from the 
strong arm of the military power, awaiting our action, demanding from 
us the full exercise of the rights they enjoyed in the better days gone by, 
when, true to the Union, they stood side by side with us upholding the honor 
of our common flag. What have they done? Why arc they knocking thus 
■t the doors of our national councils? Why these vacant seats? Ah! they 



SrEBCH ON RECONSTRUCTION ISlUJ. G5 

have committeil the most fearful and gigantic crime known in the records 
of time. 

They conspired to overthrow and blot from the book of nations the 
Government of their fathers, under whose protecting power they have 
grown rich, powerful, and enjoyed every blessing, without cause, save the 
desire to perpetuate human bondage. They conspired against popular rights 
and liberty. They sought to dishonor and degrade labor. 

Governors, Legislatures, judges, municipal oflficers; the whole ma- 
chinery of government. State and local; all collective and individual action 
of the people, were directed with awful power for long and terrible years 
for the destruction of this Republic. 

In the cabinet, on the field, on the ocean, in foreign climes and capi- 
tals, with armed men, with the torch, with poison, with fire, by robbery, 
arson, murder, starvation, pillage, and all the crimes that a fiendish in- 
genuity could devise and put into execution, they pursued their work of 
death. 

They declared that the Union was dissolved, its mission ended, and 
that never while they lived on earth, while the last man could grasp the last 
musket, would they yield this pretension. And well they did their infernal 
work. They stand before God and man staggering under the murder of 
three hundred thousand of the noblest men that ever went forth to battle 
and to death. They have desolated and darkened every home in the land; 
$3,000,000,000 of national debt, $500,000,000 more obligations incurred by 
States and counties; two million men have shouldered arms for the Re- 
public: one hundred and three thousand pensions upon our bounty caused 
by the war. These are some of the results of their action. They failed. 
Such men as were gathered into hosts and marched to the music of the 
Union and swept the armies of treason from the land were never before 
given to any country. How we should prize and cherish those who live, 
hind up their wounds, give them of our substance in their time of need. 
.\nd those who died, whose precious dust reposes iu the soil of every State, 
let us remember and sanctify their resting places, and guard well their wid- 
ows and orplians as the nation's treasure. 

What is the condition of those States and people? What their rela- 
tions to the General Government? What shall we do with them? 

And now, without resentment or fear or looking backward or trim- 
ming our sails to catch some popular breeze, acting under our oaths, and 
with the desire only to do right as it is given us to "see the right," let us 
enter upon the consideration of these momentous questions. 

All sovereignty rests with the people in this country; by virtue of this 
sovereignty they have organized States and State governments, and been 
received as such States into the Union; and subject to the Constitution of 
the T'nited States and the laws of Congress made in pursuance thereof. 



66 HAMILTON WARD. 

each State, as long as the- people thereof have observed their allegiance to 
the General Government, has been free and independent. 

The legal union of the States cannot be broken by the action of the 
people of any State unless it is accomplished by successful rebellion. The 
rebellion failed, and therefore all the people who have upheld the Union and 
still control its Government can insist that the Union is not dissolved, and 
that territorially the States in rebellion still exist. Sovereignty is still 
inherent in the people of those States, to be exercised whenever iu the judg- 
ment of the Government they can do so consistent with the national safety. 1 
do not recognize any authority now existing in these States to represent this 
sovereignty or to carry out the powers which a loyal people, instituting loyal 
State governments and sending loyal members to Congress, can do, for the 
reason that the authorities and people of those States went into rebellion, 
as I have stated, together with their representatives iu Congress, who with- 
drew from these Halls for that purpose. 

Their right to a new State government, to resume their practical and 
original relations with the loyal States, undoubtedly exists under certai)i 
conditions and restrictions. It seems to me that it necessarily follows from 
the relation of Government and people, which is of allegiance on the one 
hand and protection on the other, that if a portion of the people refuse their 
allegiance to the Government and make war upon it for its destruction, and 
are defeated in the attempt, they have forfeited the right of protection and 
are at the mercy of the Government. I said they were entitled to resume 
their original relations under certain conditions and restrictions. Who is to 
be the judge of those conditions and what shall they be? Shall the red- 
handed traitor be the judge; Is he to prescribe the conditions of his own 
return. No one will contend that. The whole practice of our Government 
under the last Administration and the present has been against it. 

Shall foreign nations be the judge? No, thank God, in our darkest 
hour our Government resented oven the advice of some of those nations as 
offensive and impertinent. And now we stand magnificent and peerless 
among the nations, which of them shall thrust its judgment upon us? Will 
the autocrat of France? We say to him that if his intermeddling with 
affairs on this continent in defiance of the time-honored policy of this coun- 
try does not cease, the army of blue will again be in motion and Maximil- 
lian will he hurled from the throne of the Montezumas. 

I shall not perplex myself with abstract propositions or enter into any 
discussiou as to whether the rebel States are in the Union or out of it. No 
one contends that they have legally severed their connection with the Union. 
The territorial boundaries of the States still exist; we have the right still to 
compel their obedience to the Government; they owe allegiance to no other; 
but as Mr. Lincoln, in his great good sense, in a speech made a few days 
before his assassination, says 



SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 186G. 67 

"They are out of their practical relation with the Union." 
Practically, thoy have been out of the Union, and practically in feel- 
ing and sympathy they are out still; and ours shall be the task to bring 
them back, not simply to power without Union, but so to reconstruct as to 
secure a true Union with power. And while a State, considered as simply 
a legal institution, cannot be destroyed, still its government can be over- 
turned and its members and people go into treason, so that practically it is 
destroyed; for after all — 

"What constitutes a State? 
Not high-raised battlements, or labored mound, 

Thick wall, or moated gate; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; 

Not bays and broad-armed ports. 
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts. 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfumes to pride — 

No! men, high-minded men." 
not traitors. 

Where do you get your constitutional power to keep their Representa- 
tives from Congress; to organize military tribunals over them; suspend their 
courts, their Legislatures, their State functions? Ask gentlemen on the 
Democratic side— you are revolutionary, say they. The land groans under 
your despotism, they exclaim. These terrible assertions would alarm us 
did we not "consider the source." These same persons and their party 
said, when treason's gripe was at the nation's throat, and its guns command- 
ed this capital, and our Government was trembling in the balance, "Oh! 
you cannot coerce a State!" "You must not make arbitrary arrests!" "You 
cannot make your Government credits legal tender!" "You cannot legally 
draft men into the army; you are revolutionary; you disregard the Consti- 
tution." They said the war was a failure, at Chicago; they were the first 
after the war to grasp hands all red with the blood of our slain brothers; 
and now they are in these Halls still harping on the subject. 

They had not long since the Democratic party with three-quarters 
of the States; and year by year and one by one the people thrust them out 
as false prophets and guides; and now they have not a State (except a few 
reconstructed rebel ones in the South) that they can control; and here they 
are, a lean and hungry band of thirty-five or forty, uttering their notes of 
discord as ever, and now "crooking the pregnant hinges of the knee" to 
President Johnson, "that thrift may follow fawning." And they, thus re- 
pudiated and disowned, are still repeating their old cry of unconstitution- 
ality. I say to them that they learn nothing by experience, nothing from 
history, or they would have seen ere this the "handwriting upon the wall," 



08 HA.AIILTON WARD. 

and road their own fate in that of the Tories of the Revolution and the 
Federalists of 1812. They assume to be the special champions of the Presi- 
dent, whom not long ago they denounced a "usurper" and "tyrant." Do 
they think the President anxious to share their fate, to go down with them 
to a political death from which there will be no resurrection? No, gentle- 
men; be admonished; the President understands you as he did when the 
southern wing of your party drove him a refugee from his home and hunted 
him like a wild beast. 

Had your counsel been followed in the time of wai- the nation would 
have perished. The people will not listen to you now. When the difficult 
work of reconstruction is to be done, they will follow the earnest men who 
have brought them safely through the night now the morning is breaking. 
Call them radicals, call them revolutionists, denounce the reconstruction 
committee ordered by Congress as you denounced Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, 
and the "mercenary soldiery" that scared your rebel friends and rested like 
nightmares upon your copperhead slumbers, and yet the nation will come 
up to the great work. Congress wil do its whole duty unawed by fear, un- 
seduced by favor. The people will sustain that Congress in taking all the 
tin)e necessary to reconstruct our Union on the foundations of immutable 
justice and equity to all classes and races under this broad flag, and woe 
to him, high or low, that stands in the way of it. 

But I answer you that the Constitution does not provide for its own 
destruction; it was not so framed as to exclude all things that were needed 
for its own perpetuity. It provides for putting down rebellion, for the pun- 
ishment of treason, for securing republican governments to the States: for 
rules and regulations to govern the Territories and other property of the 
United States; for raising armies and navies, and for the common defense. 
These are the grand objects of the Constitution; anything necessary to be 
done to carry out these objects is constitutional. It is constitutional to do 
all things necessary to preserve the Constitution and the nation which it 
founded. 

It was constitutional to put down the rebellion; so it is constitutional 
to do all to prevent a return of rebellion— to provide for the future security 
of the nation. 

You cannot invoke precedents in history to control our action; the 
situation is new. As there never was such a framework of government- 
such a people, such a rebellion, such traitors to deal with — we have conse- 
quently no guides in the past to illumine our pathway in the future. We 
must do what is necessary, relying upon our own judgement and sense of 
duty to complete the work began in the field; for I say to you we are still 
combatting our old enemy in another form. 

Again, the rights we now claim to exercise spring from the war power 
which is inherent in all governments. When civil governments fail to se- 



SrEF.CH ox KKCOXgl'KTJCTIOX l.St;(;. CO 

ouij- obedience to tho Coustitution and laws, rtsoit is had to tlio military 
power, and military jrovernments are established such as Tennessee possess- 
ed under Governor (now President) Johnson, and other States have had 
during the rebellion; and, since the disloyal armies were overthrown, the 
war power has still been exercised, and its exercise in still needed ini those 
States. The President has insisted that they should ratify the constitution- 
al amendment, give the freedman a standing in court as witness and party, 
and that they should repudiate the rebel debt before he would remit them 
to their civil rights, or advise the reception of their members by Congress. 
How can this extraordinary executive power be justified except upon the 
principles I have adverted to? 

The only question remaining is, when are these former rebels to be 
admitted to a share in the Government? That will depend much upon their 
loyalty and the ability they manifest to take loyal part in the Government. 

Thirty years the rebellion was hatching. Have all its teachings gone 
in nine months? Four years it fought with a desperation worthy of a better 
cause. Are its resentments, its pride forgotten? The same ministers that 
preached treason, the same presses that proclaimed it, now lead the people 
and control their opinions. 

It must bo remembered that thtse people are now on their good be- 
havior. Everything that is printed, said, or done is with reference to their 
getting back into the Government as soon as possible, and so the cloven foot 
is hidden as much as possible. 

But truth will assert itself; in spite of all these precautions facts crop 
out proving beyond all doubt their continued disloyalty. 

Shouts are given for Lee in the loyal Legislature of Virginia. A form- 
er member of the rebel congress, once a Speaker of this House, whose lips 
are steeped in violated constitutional oaths, is elected Governor of South 
Carolina. I^oyal Alabama has a rebel general for Governor. 

"Whipped, but not conquered."— Jackson (Mississippi) Free Trader. 

"The title of rebel is a proud one." — Petersburg (Virginia) Daily News. 

"The southern people have not been guilty of any crime; they have 
only failed," says a leading southern divine. 

"We have a right to elect our military heroes to office. Ought we 
to give up our cherished notions of policy to swallow a plum?'— Macon 
(Georgia) Journal. 

"We vote for the late Confederate soldiers because they represent the 
valor, honor, and intelligence of the people."— The South Carolinian. 

The Richmond Ttepuhlic thus illustrates the southern idea of loyalty: 

"The other day two young men were talking on a street in, a city. 
They were diving deeply into fundamental principles. One of them asked 
the other what loyalty was. Ideas have been so unsettled about what it re- 
ally consists in that an answer did not come very readily to the respondent. 



70 HAMILTON WARD. 

After some deliberation and an anxious, puzzled expression of countenance, 
the other's face suddenly brightened up. 'Why,' says he, 'I'll tell you ex- 
actly what it is; it is swearing to lie.' Did or did not this young man, in 
the candid impulse of youth, speak the popular sentiment, or describe in a 
few words the sort of loyalty which is manifested around us?" 

See what the Memphis Argus said of Union men during the rebellion: 

"The Daily Memphis Argus of December 2, 1861, contained a para- 
graph headed 'Hang 'em,' and commencing — 

" 'Hang 'em! yes, hang them every one! Every East Tennesseean, 
every Tessesseean found recreant to the will and interest of the State of 
Tennessee, and known to be actively contriving with the enemies, should 
be hung, and loftily.' " 

See what the Memphis Appeal says now: 

"The confederacy is gone, and while we hold in eacred reverence its 
glorious memories, and treasure in our heart of hearts those 'few in Sardis 
who did not defile their garments,' the noble breed of men and women 
who showed most true metal the greater the sacrifices they were called 
upon to make, and who to the last gave an unreserved allegiance to their 
country, drinking 

" 'Love in each life-drop that flowed from her breast,' 
we, bitter rebels as we have been, can give the charity of silence to 

" 'The slave 
Whose treason like a deadly blight 

Crept o'er the councils of the brave 
To blast them in their hour of might.' 

"Yes, we can give him or her the charity of silence. If he sees fit to 
lire in and seek a competence in the land he has betrayed, why let him eat 
the bitter bread of remorse in peace, and be assured that if a single element 
of a man remains within him, that bread will indeed be bitter." 

Tennessee loyalists begging to have the military retained for the pro- 
tection of loyal men, and saying that the rebels there are as cruel, ma- 
liganant, and insolent as ever! This is indorsed by their Governor, the 
dauntless Brownlow. What do you think of reconstructed Tennessee? 

Five hundred loyalists from the mountain fastnesses of Alabama say 
the same of that State. "They talk of insurrectionary violence yet in Ala- 
bama," says Major General Swayne. 

The New Era, a loyal paper, published in Arkansas, sums up the 
whole situation thus: 

"Arkansas, as she stands before the country now, can never be ad- 
mitted upon a footing of equality with the loyal States, and we fervently 
trust never will until loyalty shall be supreme in the State. Arkansas is no 
worse than any other iusurrectionary State; on the contrary, she contains 
a considerable loyal element of the conservative stripe. But that element 



SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 18G6. 71 

is even now in danger, if it has not already done so, of losing the prestige 
it so far possessed. Certain it is that when once admitted on the floor of 
Congress, and the military protection of the United States removed, tho 
late disloyal element, which is as much opposed to republican principles 
as ever, and vastly superior to the loyal element, not only in number but 
brains, organization, wealth, and everything to make a party successful, 
will make short work of tlie present State government, laws, and ordi- 
nances. 

"'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty;* the rebels are seeking to 
gain by the ballot what they could not gain by the bullet. Congress alone 
stands between the re-establishment of the power of the old slave oligarchy 
and the triumph of Republican and radical Union principles. 

"God grant that Congress remain firm and not abandon the principles 
for the especial vindication of which the Almighty seems to have raised up 
this nation." 

This is but a type of the whole. 

General Grant is sometimes cited as an authority to show that the 
South is pacified, trustworthy, and loyal. If so he has a queer way of 
Bhowing it. See what he says in answer to an application from Governor 
Parsons, of Alabama, for withdrawing the military from that State: 

"For the present, and until there is full security for equitably main- 
taining the rights and safety of all classes of citizens in the States lately in 
rebellion, I would not recommend the withdrawal of the United States 
troops from thence. The number of interior garrisons might be reduced, 
hut a movable force, sufBcient to insure tranquility, .should be retained. 
While such a force is retained in the South I doubt the propriety of putting 
arms in the hands of the militia." 

And I might multiply these terrible proofs to any extent. Do you 
need any more evidence that the "leopard has not changed his spots?" If 
go, peruse carefully the official report of General Carl Schurz. He found 
no loyalty there, only bold, defiant treason. 

In not a single Southern State have they done justice by the freed- 
men. In not one have they passed just and equitable laws that will protect 
him in his rights. The courts are rebel, jurors rebel, Legislatures rebel; 
the men who fought our flag boast of scars won in behalf of treason as 
honorable, and receive in reward office, honor, and profit. They do not 
disguise their hate for Union men; who are excluded from all those honors 
and privileges because of their loyalty. Freedom of speech, as of old. is a 
mockery. In the name of God, is such a people entitled to representation 
on this floor? Are you ready to receive them back now, to make laws for 
the widow whose husband they have slain; for the orphan whose sire they 
have murdered; for the maiine<l and helpless soldier whom they have robbed 
of arms or legs or eyes, and left him to drag out a miserable life? Is he 



72 HAMILTON WARD. 

to be a peusioner npon their bounty? Are you ready now to leave without 
protection the loyal men of the South, both white and black, and hand over 
the whole power of your government in those States to their enemies and 
oppressors? Who are these loyal white men of the South? They who fled 
to the mountains and caves; who worshiped the old flag, though it trailed in 
the dust, with more than eastern idolatry; who suffered loss of home, fam- 
ily, property, all but death, itself, for their country. 

And the four million black men who were the slaves and under the 
control of the rebels, who were away from the Union lines and its protec- 
tion, who only knew God because they saw Him in the stars and heard Him 
in the winds — for the Bible to them was a forbidden book— they who had 
only known the flag from the stripes it gave them and the Union from the 
chains it bound them with; they who from the first sent their morning and 
evening prayers to Heaven that the nation might live, who furnished our 
soldiers flying from captivity and death with guide and shelter, food and 
fire, while the master let slip bloodhounds on the fugitive's track ; who of the 
four millions betrayed a loyal man? Not one who but exposed the traitor 
master. This faithfulness on the part of those poor, simple, ignorant men 
is to my mind one of the grandest phases that the war has developed. 

How strange the contrast between the slave in his chains and the 
master who had been pampered by the Government. The former kivssed 
and upheld the i-od that had smitten him, the latter smote the hand that 
fed him. And yet we are asked at this time to consign these loyal men, 
both white and black, to the mercy, as I have said, of these rebels and 
enemies. 

I am free to say, Mr. Speaker, that if such is to be the policy of this 
Government it is recreant to its high duty; it is unworthy of all the blood 
shed and treasure expended in its cause; it deserves to perish in its ingrati- 
tude and be blotted from the face of the earth. 

We are told, sir, that they have ratified the constitutional amend- 
ment abolishing slavery. Ay, so they have; but their courts have sold 
the freedmen into slavery the next day under some pretense of punish- 
ing him for vagrancy or something else equally absurd. 

You say that they have repudiated the rebel debt. Indeed they have, 
in form; but how long do you suppose it will be after they get their mem- 
bers back into Congress before they will repeal all such legislation? They 
will have the power to do so; do you doubt their will? Have they done 
another thing more important; have they given us any assurance that they 
in conjunction with their obsequeous northern allies, will not repudiate the 
national debt, which they say was incurred in their subjugation? 

You say they have given tlie colored man a standing in court. Ay. 
so had Robert Emmett before his English murderers! So had the early 



SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 18G6. 7» 

martyrs in councils convened to take their lives! So had Jesu* ,»lf Nazareth 
in the court of Pilate! A standing in court, with, aa I said, hostile judges, 
jurors, witnesses, church and state all hostile. Such a standing in court is 
mocLery; it is worse, it is insult. 

But we are told that these are "honorable men," and will live up to 
the oaths they have taken. "Honorable men" who butchered helpless women 
and crushed out the brains of little children at Lawrence, who murdered 
in cold blood prisoners of war at Fort Pillow, who stood by with infernal 
malice and saw the flesh shrink month by month, week by week, day by 
day from the bones of thirty thousand as brave and noble men as ever went 
forth to save a nationi, until their strong frames tottered, their eyes grew 
dim, and suffering all the tortures of the danmed, gnashed their teeth and 
wailed for food until the mind went wandering back to home and wife, 
mother and child, and they called on sacred names and laughed the ma- 
niac's laugh, and then moaned and cried for bread, and died for want of 
food. In this land plenty, in the land they had gone to save, on the slimy 
couch where vermin crawled, trampled into the wet earth or over the "dead 
line," in tatters, in rags, in awful stench and filth, with dead mem in heaps 
around them, they died, and Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, and all 
the rest of these "honorable men," stood by upholding the hellish deed. God 
save the nation from such "honornble men!" 

"But what would you doV" says the impatient inquirer. "Are 
you not weary of war and blood? Are you not for peace and 
Union?" I am for peace and Union— that peace which will be 
lasting, that Union which will be just; for the fearful lesson of the last 
four years will be lost upon us if we have reconstruction without justice- 
justice to the loyal men, justice to the freedmen. We tolerated injustice 
to a race until it was wiped out V>y the blood of a million men. Let ns re- 
construct now upon solid foundations. We have the power and the right, 
and it is our highest duty to do so. We should convict and liang for treason 
the leaders of the rebellion, that all ambitious demagogues hereafter shall 
be admonished that "treason is a crime" to be punished. .Justice, by con- 
stitutional amendment fixed beyond the mutations of southern legislation, 
would give to every class and race of men in those States equality before 
the law, and all the power and franchises necessary to secure that equality. 
.Instice and a due regard to our national safety would take the government 
of those States from the hands of our country's enemies and place it in the 
hands of its friends; and if special legislation is needed to create for the 
future, as in the past, territorial governments for them to secure those ends, 
let it be done. And let not an indecent haste to strike hands that are red 
with our brothers' blood and put on garments that are reeking with the 
odors of rebel prison pens throw away the opportunity to enforce justice. 
Take all the needed time to settle these grave issues upon the eternal prin- 



74 HAxMILTON WARD. 

ciples of right, build up the new structure on the rock of justice and equal- 
ity, so that the waves of war and sedition may dash against it unharmed 
through all the ages that are to come. 

We are the judges, I have said, of the condition of their return to 
power. 

Congress, the loyal Congress, is to decide who shall take seats here. 
Loyal men, I am told, have come here as representatives from some of those 
States; as such men I take them by the hand. But I would ask them, do 
you represent a loyal constituency? It is the constituency we are rejecting, 
not the man. I would ask them what guarantee they can give, that when 
their brief term here is ended, that men in sympathy with their rebellious 
districts, who can swear hard enough to take the oath, (for they are a nation 
of oath-takers and oath-breakers,) will not succeed them. They should 
remember that they were electee! while the war was still raging, while these 
rebel constituents were in the field; now they have returned to vote at the 
next election, do they expect a re-election from their hands? Can they as- 
sure me that they were not put forward for the present by design, to use 
their loyalty to edge their districts into Congress, and then to be laid aside 
(as Governor Holden of North Carolina was) as a cast-off mask when the 
object is accomplished? Suppose we let them in now, what excuse can we 
give, having established this precedent, for excluding others? 

I will yield to none in my regard for the Union men of the South, 
but I can do nothing to jeopardize the great questions of the time. I cannot 
sacrifice principle in my partiality for men. Congressmen and Presidents 
are but the objects of the day — 

"That strut and fret their hour upon the stage. 
And then are heard no more." 
They pass away and are forgotten; but our acts here on these great ques- 
tions will live forever, for the weal or woe of the Republic. We must make 
no mistakes, but build the edifice slowly and surely. And when the justice 
we have demanded is secured, the guarantees we ask for are given, and a 
returning Union sentiment is apparent, then we would lift no longer the veil 
or horrors, but consign to Heaven, that rights all wrongs, the guilty of our 
"misguided countrymen;" and united with the South we would seek to lift 
it up to a purer patriotism and to the level of the olden time, when together 
we fought the common foe, cherished common glories and traditions, and 
reposed beneath the folds of a common flag. And then our country will 
march on to its imperial destiny, the greatest and the best of all the nations 
of the earth. 

On the 2 1 St day of March, 1866, Hamilton Ward made 
the following- statement in the House in relation to the Ar- 



IN CONGRESS ISGO. 75 

lingtoii Military Cemetery, and presented the letter which 
follows the statement : 

"I desire to male a statement upon a siihjcct in relation to which 
the public feel a very deep interest. I have received numerous letters from 
various parts of the country, written by friends and relatives of soldiers 
who have been buried at Arlington Heights, expressing tlieir solicitude as to 
the title which the Government holds of those heights. Fears seem to be 
entertained that at some future time the sacred dust of our heroic dead 
may become the property of the arch-traitor Lee or his descendents. In 
order to ascertain! the facts I have addrt'Ssed the Secretary of War a letter 
upon the subject. His reply I ask to have read." 

The Clerk read the communication as follows : 

''War Department, Washington City, Feb'y 24, 186G. 
"Sir: I am directed by the Secretary of War to acknowledge the 
receipt of your note of the 15th inst., requesting information with regard 
to the title of the Government to the grounds on Arlington Heights, oc- 
cupied for a national military cemetery, and in reply thereto to state that 
it appears from a report of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel L. G. C Lee, as- 
sistant quartermaster U. S. Army to the Quartermaster General, that at a 
sale of lands for unpaid taxes on the 11th day of January, 1864, the Ar- 
lington estate, including the grounds referred to, was bid in by the U. S. 
for the sum of $26,800.00, and was afterwards turned over to the mili- 
tary authorities, and that the certificate of the sale is now in the hands 
of the II. S. Tax Commissioners at Alexandria, Virginia, but will, as is 
stated by them, be soon placed on file in the Treasury Department. 
"I have the honor, sir, to be your most obedient servant. 

"EDWIN L. STANTON." 
"Hon Hamilton Ward. 
"Washington, D. C." 

On April 2nd, i866, Mr. Ward introduced a petition 
signed by several hundred citizens of his district asking that 
the legal day's w'ork on government work be eight hours. 
This is interesting in view of the advanced position on the 
labor question (at that time) taken by the 27th Congres- 
sional District of New York, w'hich w^as largely agricultural. 

On April 7th of that year he presented a petition from 
Chemung County wool growers, asking that the tariff on 
wool be increased. 



76 HAMILTON WARD. 

On April i6rli, still befriending- the soldiers, he intro- 
duced a bill providing the means for the payment of the 
militia in the State of New York, for their service in the war 
of 1812. It was referred to the Committee on Appropria- 
tions. 

On April 30th, 1866, Mr. Ward reported a bill for the 
relief of Ishmael Day and the proceedings in the Congres- 
sional Globe of that da}^ are as follows : 

"Mr. Ward, from the Committee on Claims, to whom w.'is referred 
the petition of Ishmael Day, praying compensation for the destruction 
of his property by rebel raiders on the 12th of April, 18(>4, reported a bill 
for the relief of Ishmael Day, which was read a first and second timi-. 

"The bill which was read provides that, as a recognition of the hero- 
ism of Ishmael Day, of Baltimore County, Maryland, and as compensa- 
tion for the loss of all his proi)erty in defending the national flag from an 
attack by rebel raiders on the 12th day of July, 1S64, there be paid to 
Ishmael Day, annually from July 12th, 1864, during his life the sum of 
?421.o0 to be paid in semi-annual payments. 

"The report which was read states that the petitioner, aged seventy- 
two years and loyal to the dovernment of the United States, had his prop- 
erty, consisting of a dwelling house, outhouses and personal property to 
the value of $7,025, burned and destroyed on July 12th, 1804, under the 
following circumstances: 

"Early on the morning of that day, as was his custom, he elevated 
and unfurled the flag of the United States in front of his door-steps as an 
insignia of his principles. Soon thereafter, while it was waving there, one 
hundred and fifty of Gilmore's raiders approached the premises, while 
two of the men in advance of the main squad of the enemy seized the 
flag staff and jerked it down, cursing and calling the flag "a damned old 
rag." At this juncture old Ishmael Day rushed instantly up stairs, 
where he kept two guns loaded, seized one, shot and killed the traitor who 
had insulted the national flag, and immediately, with the other gun, he 
pursued the remaining rebel, who succeeded in making his escape. Very 
soon the whole party of raiders came upon the old man, threatened his 
life, and burned and destroyed his property, being all that he possessed 
in the world. The matter was presented to the consideration of the late 
President of the United States, who directed that the amount of the loss 
sustained by the petitioner should be collected by the military order and 
assessment by levy upon the property of disloyal rebel sympathizers of 
the vicinity. But this order, for some reason unknown, was never exe- 



ISHMAEL DAY 18G«. 77 

outed; nor has the petitioner ever received any compensation for any part 
of his loss in thus defending his country's flag. 

"The constitutional convention of Maryland, which met soon after 
Day's display of patriotism and loyalty, passed by a large majority the 
following: 

"ORDERED that the thanks of this convention, representing as it 
does the people of Maryland, are hereby tendered to the old citizen and 
patriot of Baltimore County. Ishmael Day, for his heroic and gallant act 
in shooting doAvn the traitor who dared to pull down his country's flag, 
which he had raised as an evidence of his loyalty and patriotism, which 
act of daring heroism meets with the approbation of the heart and con- 
science of every loyal citizen of Maryland." 

"The committee state that they are satisfied that Day needs the 
amount asked to provide for his comfortable support during the remain- 
der of his days. In recommending a favorable consideration of the claim, 
they base their action upon the extraordinary and peculiar circumstances 
of the case; and in view of the example to the community at that critical 
period of the country they deem it but just to this brave and aged patriot 
that his gallant deed should receive the especial notice and recognition of 
Congress and the country, and that compensation in a measure for the loss 
he actually sustained should be made. 

"The committee further repoi-t that they do not regard a recommen- 
• .'on of this claim as establishing any precedent for the payment of other 
claims for damages resulting fi-om the ravages of war. 

"Mr. Ward: Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Claims have not been 
lavish of their favors, as the House will bear witness. They have felt, 
as the guardians of the Public Treasury at this critical time in our affairs 
financially, we should be careful of what kind of claims they should be 
allowed to recommend to the House. They have chosen to be just rather 
than to be generous, and hence a great many claims appealing strongly 
to our sympathies and patriotism have beeni rejected by the committee, 
not because of unwillingness to give relief in these cases but because of 
the condition of our finances and because they would establish a precedent 
which might involve the country in the payment of large amounts of money. 
The committee felt that in this case, in the case of this old man of sev- 
enty-four years of age, who, in the midst of that treacherous community 
in which he lived, remained firm and true to the flag of his country; who 
never retirefl at night but he prayed a prayer for our imperilled nation 
and never arose in the morning but he raised the flag over his doorstep; 
who, when the flag was torn down by a ruthless hand, shot the traitor who 
did it; and who, in consequence of that act, was sent forth in his old age 



78 HAMILTON WARD. 

to wander upon the face of the earth without a roof to shelter him— in 
this case the committee thought they were justified in presenting this bill 
and report. 

"I remember very well, Mr. Speaker, when in the outbreak of the 
Rebellion, when the Union was in jeopardy from traitors North and South 
and in foreign countries, and even when the Administration seemed to 
be conspiring to overthrow the Government, that the first inspiration we 
had from oflicial circles, the first word of encouragement from Washing- 
ton which sent a thrill of joy to every patriotic heart, was the injunction 
of General John A. Dix to his subordinates: "Whoever shall haul down 
the American tlag, shoot him on the spot." That injunction has become 
as familiar as household words. It has rendered his name immortal. Old 
fshmael Day obeyed that injunction and shot the traitor on the spot. 
Allow me to express the fervent hope, through ail the perils which shall 
beset our national life in coming ages, may this injunction be remem- 
bered and the example of old Ishmael Day shine out to fire the hearts and 
inspire the arms of our people to the latest generation. I think we should 
stamp upon this act the seal of our approbation. I hope there will be no 
dissenting voice. 

"Mr. Upson: Is this to pay for property destroyed by rebels? 

"Mr. Washburne, of Illinois: It is for shooting downi a traitor. 

"Mr. Upson: On what principle is it proposed to establish this prece- 
dent, and how is it ot be carried out? 

"Mr. Ward: He has shot down a traitor for hauling down the Am- 
erican flag. I would sustain every one who sustained the American flag 
in that way. I demand the previous question." 

The bill was passed. 

It was at this session of Congress that the jealousy 
and bitterness which had existed between the truly great 
men. Roscoe Conklin and James G. Blaine, broke out, and 
it was at this session that Blaine made his historic speech, 
denouncing Conklin. a speech which cost him the Presi- 
dency in 1884. Hamilton Ward was a partisan of Conklin. 

On the 5th of April, 1866, shortly before the final con- 
troversy Blaine rose to make a personal explanation, which 
every one knew to be an attack on Conklin. But before 
he had begun his argument he was interrupted by Mr. 
Ward who rose to inquire if his colleague from the Utica 
district (Conkhn) was in his seat. Conklin was there and 
was able to protect himself. 



IN CONGRESS ISOi!. T'J 

Mr. Ward's position on the Committee of Claims was 
a very trying one. Such enormous sums of money had 
been disbursed by the officials of the Government in crush- 
ing the Rebellion that the old national spirit of economy 
had almost died out, and even in this first session Mr. Ward 
is constantly found objecting to the allowance of claims, 
and especially to the increase of salaries or the creation of 
new offices. 

There was one object, however, for which he thought 
the Government moneys might properly be expended, and 
that was to the men who had preserved that Government — 
the common soldiers. 

Although a radical Republican and among those who 
did not believe in immediately restoring rebels to full citi- 
zenship, still Mr. Ward watched the course of events with 
great attention, and wiien the loyal men of East Tennessee 
organized a State Government and presented themselves 
for re-admission to the Union he offered a resolution pro- 
viding for the re-admission of the State. 

This was however defeated. 

On July 26th, 1866. Mr. Ward stopped two "grab 
bills" and throughout the session he constantly and per- 
sistants opposed the payment of money on any claims 
which had not been carefully considered by committees. 

At this time the President (Johnson) began the course 
which ended in his impeachment trial, and Congress stood 
practically alone, arrogating to itself, so far as the constitu- 
tion permitted all the functions of government. The Halls 
of Congress were everywhere and every public question re- 
ceived minute and earnest attention. Many letters were 
received by Mr. Ward from his district and from other parts 
of the country of a cheering and commendatory character, 
and even his defeated opponent for the Republican nomina- 
tion, A. N. Cole, "The father of the Republican Party." 
congratulated him ; one letter from the State of Iowa is as 
follows : 



80 HAMILTON WARD. 

"Dubuque, Iowa, March (jth, 1866. 
"Hon. H. Ward, M. C: 

"My dear sir: — I have recently perused your great speech delivered 
before the House of Representatives on the 10th ultimo, with great pleas- 
ure, and I cannot, as a loyal American refrain from penning a word of 
congratulation and thanks to you sir for your untiinching loyalty upon 
the momentous questions that now agitate the American people. I had 
the honor to be called to a neighboring city a few days since for the pur- 
pose of addressing a meeting prior to a town election, and it did my soul 
good to be called upon to read from an Iowa paper the speech of Hon. 
H. Ward, of New York. Such enthusiastic cheering from an assembly of 
three thousand men you never heard, and I am only sorry that you, sir, 
could not have been present to have enjoyed the enthusiasm. 

"I extend to you sir on the part of the loyal great Northwest my 
hearty thanks and congratulations. 
"I am sir, 

"Respectfully your obedient servant. 

"HARRY FRONDINGTON." 

"Should you desire to know of your correspondent I would respect- 
fully refer you to the Hon. Ward H. Lamon, of Washington." 

On April 4th, 1866, C. S. Fairman, editor of the El- 
mira Advertiser and a friend since boyhood, writes as fol- 
lows: 

"Elmira, April 4, 1866. 
"Dear Hamilton: — 

"I received your long and interesting letter today. Its reception re- 
minded me that the long neglected duty of writing to you must be ne- 
glected no longer. 

"You give rather a dreary description of the situation at Washington. 
It is plain to all Republicans whatever their views upon Andy, that the 
case is a bad one. The rinderpest and the cholera and the yellow fever, 
and the devil knows what all seems to have got into the party, and have 
been raising special Ned; but those chaps down in Connecticut rather 
took the kink out of the pestilence and the ranks after the battle present 
a healthy appearance pleasant to look at. There are worse things than 
vetoes, though these are bad enough. We can be vetoed and live and hold 
np our heads but we couldn't have been beaten in New Hampshire and 
Connecticut without having a funeral. 

"I confess to many misgivings about Andy Johnson. I am afraid 
he has committed the unpardonable ein, but you remember the old couplet 



IX CONGRESS ISGO. 81 

While .vet the lamp holds out to burn the vilest sinner may return.' 
Therefore, my advice is to keep cool, don't get excited, do nothing rashly, 
stand firm and wait on events. If the President is going, let him go in 
his own way and his own time. If he has already gone then the worst is 
over and we can get along without him better tham he can get along with- 
out us. He don't yet take the offices from Eepublicaus and give them to 
Copperheads. Indeed the evidence is somewhat strong that even now 
that he is about to appoint Census Depew Collector of New York and I 
have high authority for saying this will meet the approbation of every 

d d mam, woman and child in at least one Congressional district in this 

State. 

"Don't be gloomy. The nation has overcome secession, rebellion, 
and the devil. We need'nt be frightened now at a veto. The people out 
here are as calm as cucumbers. They sleep sound nights, go to meeting 
regular on Sunday and swear that the Daily Advertiser is the best paper 
in the State. Nicks has been elected Mayor and Jim Hill turned out of the 
police. What more do we want? Ain't the Union safe? If not, why 
not? Caldwell is Supervisor of the First Ward and has registered an oath 
to support the constitution. Didn't he make a map of Allegany County 
with Belmont in the middle and Angelica way ofE in the corner. I tell 
you he can reconstruct anything from a two-membered county to a dis- 
membered Union. 

"We will all stand by you in a firm adherence to duty and principle. 
We do stand by you. Don't swerve an inch from the true and right 
path; let no rebel into Congress and put up the bars against their future 
admission. But don't imagine that the people are crazy about the vetoes. 
They don't like them and they will vote to override them. But we get 
up more excitement here about a fire in a bakeshop than over a thousand 
vetoes. Again I say do right, but keep cool. Excuse the looseness and 
freedom of these few remarks and believe me as ever your sincere friend 
and sturdy backer. 

"C. G. FAIRMAN." 

Congressmen were doubtless flooded with correspon- 
dence and Lincoln's "Government by the People" was fully 
realized. In the President's effort to build up a personal 
filled with his sympathizers, and this threat was held over the 
country loyal men were removed from office and their places 
filled with sympathizers, and this threat was held over the 
Radical Republican members of the House, with the expec- 
tation that the pressure brought to bear by their constitu- 



82 HAMILTON WARD. 

ents would be irresistable. This, however, did not affect 
Mr. Ward's action and even those constituents who were 
removed from office sustained him. 

The following- letter from a country postmaster and 
his wife is typical: 

"May 16th. 
"H. Ward. 

"Dear Sir: — Your second is received. 

"You place me under lasting obligations to you. Of course whatever 
you think best to do will be gratefully received by myself but I do not wish 
you to withhold your ideas of right and wrong for a dozen such offices as 
this. In haste, 

"Respectfully. &c., 

"L. F. PHILLIPS, 
"ALICE J. PHILLIPS." 

On June 9th. Mr. Ward wrote the following letter to 
the President relative to the proposed removal of the Post- 
master at Cuba. N Y. 

"Washington, D. C, June 9th, 1866. 
"To the President: 

"Dear Sir: — I have received notice that an application has been 
made for the removal of L. A. Butts, P. M.. at Cuba, Allegany Co., N. 
Y., and the appointment of Samuel M. Russell in his place. Against this 
change I most emphatically protest for the following reasons: 

"I am well acquainte<l with Mr. Butts; he is a gentleman, a man of 
honor and is not disobliging or discourteous. The Cuban Post Office became 
Presidential about a year or more ago and I was requested to recommend 
some one for the place. I recommended the present incumbent, Lucian A. 
Butts, because he was a citizen of Cuba and fully qualified for the place. 
He, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, volunteered as a private in the U. 
S. Army; served three years faithfully; was in a rebel prison about a year 
of the time and returned, honorably discharged, with his health greatly 
impaired, with the little property he had at the commencement of the 
war used up and with a family consisting of a wife and several children on 
his hands, and out of business. He was promoted for merit while in the 
service I believe to Captain. 

"Under the resolution of Congress and in justice to this brave man 
I recommended him as Post Master and he was promptly nominated by 



IX CONGRESS 18(>(j. 83 

the President and this selection was approved by nearly the entire people 
of the P. O. district. 

"The man who makes the complaint against Captain Butts (Calvin 
T. Chamberlain) is a notorious Copperhead of Allegany County and who 
sympathized more with the Rebellion than he did with the Union cause. 

"The man Russell, whom he recommended as a strong Johnson man, 
wrote me a letter not long since condemning the course of the President 
on the subject of reconstruction which I think I have saved and can pro- 
duce. 

"Should the President desire to hear from the community interested 
an almost univeisal remonstrance against the removal can bo obtained. 
"Respectfully yours, 

"HAMILTON WARD." 

On the 23rd clay of May. at the request of loyal Re- 
publicans, Mr. Ward delivered a speech at Towsontown, 
Md. 

In the spring of this year (1866) a vacancy occurred 
in the Naval Academy at Annapolis for the 27th N. Y. Con- 
gressional District and the power of appointment resided in 
the Congressmen. As the military spirit of the country was 
still keen the appointments were much sought after and in 
fact large sums of money were offered for them, which 
temptation proved too much for many a Congressman from 
the reconstruction States. 

Mr. Ward had an old friend, one, Jeremiah Hatch of 
Friendship, who at the commencement of the war had se- 
cured a captain's commission with Mr. Ward's assistance 
and had gone to the front, where he died of fever, leaving a 
wife and two small sons. Concerning this appointment Mr. 
Ward wrote the following letter to the widow: 

"Washington, D. C, March 2^. ISOG. 
"Mrs. J. Hatch. 

"Dear Madam: — I have got to recommend a boy for the Naval 
Academy from the Congressional District I have the honor to represent. 

"There are many candidates for the place and many sons of wealthy, 
influential men are striving h.ird to get the appointment, for it is the making 
of the young man for life and a fortune for him. 

"But my heart turns aside from all these to find the dependent son 



S4 HAxMlLTON WAKD. 

of some widow who htis lost his father in the service of his country and 
whose only legacy from that father is his glorious sacrifioe upon the nation's 
alter. And looking over the list I find none more worthy than the sons of 
my valued friend and your lamented husband. 

"You will please find the regulations of the naval school inclosed. 
Look them over and if one of your boys will answer the description send 
me his name and I will recommend him. What is the name of that littld 
fellow I saw on the ears selling apples some time ago? If he is suitable I 
would like to recommend him. 

"Truly your friend, 

"HAMILTON WARD." 

Thereafter the boy, Edward W. Hatch, received the 
appointment, and went to AnnapoHs, whence he ran awa)^ in 
a few months and returned home, a fortunate decision, as 
he is now one of the foremost jurists in the State; at the 
present time being a Justice of the N. Y. Supreme Court, 
serving on the Appellate Division for the ist Department 
with absolutely no limits to his future. 

On Jul}^ 4th, Mr. Ward, whose reputation as a speaker 
was rapidly increasing, delivered another speech in Mary- 
land ; this time at Hagerstown at a 4th of July celebration, 
a loyal demonstration organized by the Loyal Soldiers 
League. 

The Hagerstown Herald and Torch of July nth says: 
"Mr. Ward's address was political in its character, spiced 
with just enough of the 4th of July to make it appropriate. 
We consider it incomparably the best political speech that 
has been made in Hag-erstown for many years." 

Of course as the summer of 1866 came on the Congres- 
sional nominations and elections attracted attention. The 
President's course in removing Mr. Ward's friends in the 
27th District has strengthened instead of weakened him. 
and this especially in Chemung County, where John L 
Nicks, a party leader, lost his place as appraiser because of 
his advocacy of the constitutional amendments. Finally 
Dr. Beadle, of Elmira. the only avowed candidate in opposi- 
tion, withdrew. The Elmira Advertiser declared for Ward 



ELMIKA SPEECH ISGG. 



85 



as it had all along desircci to do, and his unanimous renom- 
ination was assured. 

On the 2ist day of July the following- in\itation was 
sent to Mr. Ward : 



"Elmira. N. Y., .July 21st, ISGU. 
"Hon. Hnmiltou Ward, 

"House of Rcijresentatives, 
"Washington, D. C. 
"Sir: — The undersigned, jour fellow citizens, and supporters of the 
Republican Union, party of tlie nation, request that you will name some 
early day after the close of the present session of Congress, most conveni- 
ent for yourself, on which you \vill address the people of this city and 
vicinity on the present condition of public affairs. 

"With sincere wishes for your public and private prosperity, 
"We remain, sir. Very respectfully, 
"Your obedient servants. 



C. C. Gardiner, 
H. B. Smith, 
And. S. Thurston, 
E. A. Scott, 
J. H. Rathborn. 
William E. Hart, 

E. S. Hubbell, 
R. W. Barton, 

F. G. Hall, 

E. W. J. Dolwell, 
J. Langdon, 
E. N. Frisbee, 
A. P. Radsa. 
A. E. Merrill. 
S. B. Fairman, 



X. P. Fassett, 
S. R. Van Campen, 
L. M. Smith, 
T. H. Squire. 
H. M. Pattridge, 
N. W. Gardnier, 
D. H. Tuthill, 
C. G. Fairman, 
George Swain, 
S. R. Pratt, 
G. A. Giidley. 
Henry Wilson, 
Asher Tyler, 
W. N. Starks, 
L. A. Humpery. 



To which he replied as follows : 

"Washington, D. C, July 25. 18G6. 
"Gentlemen : — 

"I am in receipt of a communication signed by yourself 
an<l twenty-eight other prominent citizens of Elmira, kindly inviting me to 
"Address the people of that city and vicinity on the present condition of 
public affairs." and to select some time for that purpose. I conclude that 



86 HAMILTON WARD. 

this movement is in the interest of the great Union cause you have so 
steadily maintained and which is now being assailed in all quarters by old 
enemies and new, and which cause appeals again to the people to come 
to its rescue. Meetings when the issues and dangers of the hour are dis- 
cussed cannot fail to do good. Approving therefore of the object of the 
proposed meeting and anxious to sen-e in any manner in my power this 
good cause I will accept your invitation and will endeavor to be present 
at such time as you may designate between the 30th of July and the 10th 
day of August, trusting that you will give me reasonable notice of the 
time. 

"With many thanks for your kindness and courtesy, I am, gentle- 
men, Very respectfully yours, 

"HAMILTON WARD." 

The meeting was held at Ely Hall August 9th and was 
largely attended, practically the whole city turning out to 
greet the speaker. The Mayor, John I. Nicks, presided. 

Mr. Ward spoke as follows : 

"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I will not disguise from 
you the gratification I feel at the warm and generous reception you have 
given me. I am glad to be present upon this occasion, at this magnificent 
outpouring of the people, and to know that the chief town of the 27th 
District has done itself the honor of firing the first gun of this campaign 
in Southern New York in the cause of liberty. I confess that it is pleas- 
ant to come among you after striving with Copperheads and rebels, and 
with a traitorous administration stabbing ua at the back, and with the 
same lips that shouted for joy at the repulse at Bull Run and at Chan- 
cellorsville, crying for Congress to be dissolved at the point of the bayo- 
net. I am gratified to come back and find that the people among these 
Northern hills are true to liberty, true to the party, and true to the coun- 
try. I suppose it is proper when a representative of the people is about 
to surrender the commission with which they have honored him into the 
hands of his masters, he should give an account of his stewardship, and 
tell them how he has discharged the duty with which he has been en- 
trusted. You will pardon me if I detail to you the legislation of the last 
Congress, and my connection with it. You remember, when the good 
President died— when the foulest blow ever struck took him from this 
earth— when they bore him away to his last home— when the millions 
looked upon his dead face and wept, and the tears of a nation enshrined 
his bier— you remember that Andrew Johnson, in an evil hour became 
President of the United States. In what condition did he find the coun- 
try? He tells us in his proclamation appointing Gov. Holden, of North 



EL.MIKA SPEECH 1800. 87 

Carolina, that the war, in the course of its march, had depriveJ them> 
States of all civil government. He found them prostrated. He found the 
haujrhty Lee driven from the field. He found the national flag floating 
over every State — grand, imperial, and magnificent— from ocean to oceau 
—from the Great Lakes to the (xulf. He found the Southern people sub- 
dued, their land a land of carnage and graves — ready to accept any terms, 
and asking only for life—only for existence. They felt that they had com- 
mitted the greatest crime in history, that they had raised a parricidal 
hand against the best government on earth, and conspired against popular 
liberty throughout the world. They felt abashed and condemned. They 
were ready for anything. They expected the most humiliating terms. 
Andrew Johnson became President by the blow of the assassin. You re- 
member the shameful transaction of the 4th of March preceding, when 
the nation blushed with shame at hi^5 conduct. With astonishment and 
horror we received the tidings of the death of the President, because we 
knew on whose shoulders his mantle was to descend. Still the nation was 
willing to receive him, and if he had appreciated his position and the high 
responsibility resting upon him. when he found eleven States without gov- 
ernment, or law, or legislation, he would have called, as he had a right 
to do under the circumstances, upon the representatives of the people, he 
would have convened a s[)ecial and extraordinary session of Congress, and 
said to them, "Here is the reserved power authorizing me to convene you, 
and I ask you to convene in those marble halls and take counsel." We 
all queried why he did not do this — why he did not call upon the repre- 
sentatives of the people to advise with him. Our strong men went there. 
I eading men from all parts of the country waited upon him, and said that 
they thought he should be surrounded by the legislative branches of the 
government. He treated them with contempt. What did he do? — He un- 
dertook to organize governments in these Slates. Why did he do it? We 
have the answer now in the blood shed at New Orleans. Time has de- 
veloped the answer. He intended to throw the whole power of the gov- 
ernment into the hands of the rebels in those States— (A voice — For 
shamel) — and that the loyal people should become their victims. You ask 
why he refused to call Congress together. I tell you it was for the pur- 
pose of organizing a great party, of which he should be the grand head 
center, and of which the Copperheads and rebels should form the ranks. 
Fellow citizens, I came here to talk as I feel. If I talk too radical for 
yon, tell me of it. (Cries, "Goo<i:" "Go on!") We must understand 
fully the issue, and if it is necessary to use plain talk, to use it. (A voice 
"That's so.") [Applause.] 

"I will speak first of the government established by Anrlrew .Tohn- 



88 HAMILTON WARD. 

son in those Southern States. In several of them, they were organized 
in June, 1865. It was done that they might be governments de facto so 
that when Congress should assemble they would be embarrassed by them 
and might not want to undo them. Be that as it may, we come to De- 
cember, 1865, when the 39th Congress assembled. We went to Washing- 
ton with a desire to co-operate with the President, and to aid him in the 
great work of reconstruction. None of us had any desire to break with 
him. It cannot be said that I had any desire to quarrel with him. He 
Lad the whole control of the official patronage of the district, and could 
turn my friends out of oflice, and I think he will remove my friend, Mayor 
Nicks, when he hears from us tonight. It is said that Congress quarrels 
with the President. None of us had any desire to quarrel with him. No, 
fellow-citizens, we went to him in delegations, in platoons — if the soldiers 
present will allow me to so term it. We said to him, "We desire to co- 
operate with you. Our people want justice and protection to the loyal 
men. They want the government reconstructed upon a sound basis, so 
that, in all time to come, it shall stand firmly upon the principles of right 
and justice." We said we had no confidence in these reconstructed rebels. 
They had been for thirty years trying to betray the government. Their 
souls had been corrupted with the theories of secession. We desired not 
to deal with them, but with the loyal men of the South. The only answer 
we got was "My policy." "You must let those in who can swear in. No 
matter if they have acted badly, if any can swear himself in, let him in." 
"But, Mr. President, you said in your Nashville speech, that treason was 
a crime, and must be made odious, and that traitors must take back seats 
—that if there was but five thousand loyal men in the State, they should 
control, to the exclusion of the enemies of the government." "But," said 
he, "you cannot do that; you must let these persons vote whom I have 
pardoned." And so, day after day, we waited upon him and besought him 
to stand by us upon questions that we thought it was the province of 
Congress to dispose of. We felt that principle, that justice arose above 
Presidents and Congresses, and everything else, and true to our duty and 
to our manhood, we must stand forth and vindicate the right. (Applause). 
AVhat condition did we find the country in? These eleven States were in a 
disorganized condition. They were without government and without law, 
eave as the President had established governments over them. When Con- 
gress assembled, the streets of Washington were lined with men from 
Alabama and Mississippi, and other Southern States, who were refugees 
from those States, and they plucked our sleeves and said, "For 
God's sake, do not give us up to the mercy of our enemies. 
We ' have suffered the loss of property and everything but life 
itself, and when we saw the old flag brought back to us again, we felt 
that the day of jubilee and the day of redemption had come, but this 



ELMIRA SPEECH ISGG. 89 

President whom we had snatched as a brand from the burning, whom we 
took into our party and made Vice-President, when he had not a vote to 
bring with him, has abandoned us. We ask you again in God's name to 
save us from our enemies." What should we have done? Would you 
have us turn our backs upon them, and so dishonor ourselves as to say 
to them, "Go back to these men, for they have got to control you." "But," 
they say, "we have given you our purest and holiest allegiance, and we 
demand protection in return. The President refuses it to us." They said 
to us, "There was a time when the American flag protected its citizens 
wherever they were. It was the emblem of power everywhere. Cannot 
yon protect an American citizen upon his own soil?" It was once the 
boast of a Roman that he was a Roman citizen. Mr. Marcy said — I think 
in the Kozta case — "The American flag reaches over the whole earth, and 
protects the American citizen wherever he is found." I felt that I repre- 
sented one of the mofst loyal and liberty loving districts in the country. I 
felt as if you were saying to me, "Sir, do not abandon them," and I felt 
that everything should sink, office, and patronage, and everything before 
I would abandon them. (Great cheering.) 

"There was another view to take of these things. The war had sud- 
denly given freedom to four millions of people. They were black, to be 
sure. Their faces were not as fair as these I gaze upon to-night; yet not one 
of them had ever proven false to their country. I see soldiers before me 
to-night. Do they remember that ihey always found the black man 
aiding and assisting them when endeavoring to find their way from rebel 
prisons and dungeons back to the land of liberty and home? They were 
ignorant, and had been enslaved) l)y their masters, and they had ap- 
pealed to Almighty God, and the retribution had come upon us, and now 
when we had rid the land of the curse of slavery, and purified the es- 
cutcheon of the nation from this great stain, what were we to do? There 
were four millions of them. They were to be an important element in the 
country. What was wisdom in reference to them? Was it to surrender 
them to a virtual slavery, without any protection? Were we to hold the 
M'ord of promise to the ear and break it to the hope? After two hundred 
thousand of them had sprung to arms for the sake of the old flag that only 
brought them oppression and stripes, was it the duty of Congress to sur- 
render thom to their former masters? There was a great national policy 
demanding that we should take care of them. Suppose we left them to the 
tender mercies of Southern legislation, and allowed them to legislate the 
colored man back to bondage? lie would grow restless and fret like tho 
caged lion against his bars, and he would feel wronged and oppressed, and 
tumult and disorder would have arisen, and as a mere question of policy it 
became the duty of Congress to extend to him protection and care. What 



»0 HAMILTON WARD. 

said the Presideut? They had been secured in their freedom, and that was 
all. They must work out their own salvation. What chance did he have? 
If we did not demand that he might be a party in court, and give him the 
rights of a citizen, of what avail would be his freedom? The President 
responded, "My policy." He had been the "Moses." One colored indi- 
vidual, whom I remember, said to me, in speaking of him, that "As for 
dat Moses, he seemed to leeb them a great while in the wilderness." 
(Laughter.) We insisted that we had a right to an opinion of our own 
upon the subject, and whether the President agreed with us or not we 
would do right. (Great applause.) And if you have observed the debates 
of Congress, you will have seen that, aside from some petulant remarks 
of Mr. Stevens, there was nothing said against him until he had made war 
upon Congress, and removed men from office for opinion's sake, until Mr. 
Ingersoll, of Illinois, rose and said we had three great calamities this year, 
the Asiatic cholera, the rinderpest, and Andy Johnson. (Laughter.) Noth- 
ing was said against him until he had surrendered himself to the Copper- 
heads. I do not mean Democrats — I mean Copperheads. I mean that 
portion of the human family who had the meanness and treason of Jeffer- 
son Davis, without his courage; who rejoiced over rebel victories and sor- 
rowed over government sucesses. These were traitors to the government 
of the United States, and cowards. As to the Democratic masses who 
sent forth their numbers to the fields — as for them, I take them by the 
hand and I believe that they will be with the country still. (Inimeiise 
cheers). I hope no gentleman, now, will feel offended if I talk about Cop- 
perheads. If thpy do, I shall have some suspicion of them. (T.anglitoi). 

"What was the Freedmen's Bureau Bill? It was a bill providing 
for the protection of the loyal men of the South, who had nothing with 
which to care for themselves. Their substance was wasted, and they were 
wanderers without a home to shelter them. Then, there were the freed- 
men thrown loose upon society, many of them in a starving condition. It 
was a bill of charity. It was a bill of religion, or rather a religious bill. 
It simply carried out the injunction of the Great Master to exercise char- 
ity. The officers of the government and the bureau were scattered over 
the whole South, and wherever a wrong was done, the injured person could 
go to the agent of the bureau for protection. We had talked of the 
rights of the people. We had claimed that we should protect the people 
of the South, but we had done nothing to protect them. — We had what 
Rufus Choate called the "glittering generalities" in the constitutioni, but 
they did i.ot protect them. They were there substantially a dead letter. 
The Freedmen's Bureau was a substantial benefit. We felt that it should 
be extended. The bill, .is it stood, provided that it should cease its opera- 



ELMIRA SPEECH ISGG. J)l 

tions one year after the establishment of peace, and we did not know but 
the President would claim that peace commenced upon the surrender of 
the rebel army. We thought that the privileges of the bureau should be 
extended a little longer, and we passed the bill that he afterwards vetoed, 
and so the war upon Congress was begun. 

"What next did we send himV The Civil liights Bill, providing that 
all men in these States should be citizens of the United States— that those 
men who had been in bondage, and had been lifted to freedom, should 
henceforth be freemen indeed. (Cheers). I tell you that when the legisla- 
tion of a nation disregards the rights of a large proportion of the people, 
that nation will fall to the dust and be destroyed. They who invite all 
the nations of the earth to send their refugees and wanderers to our 
shores — was it for us to deny to four millions of people the rights of citizen- 
ship? (Cries of "no," "no," and cheers). I met one of these men in 
Washington, walking with crutches, with a limb off. I asked where he 
lost his limb? lie said at the Second Bull Run battle. The Freedmen's 
Bureau, he said, was taking care of him. He bore upon him the livery 
of the Republic, and I thought more of him than of the whole Southern 
Confederacy. (Cheers). 

"We sent this Civil Rights Bill to the President, and he vetoed it. 
The people had been aroused, the legislatures of the States had spoken, 
and I believe we passed that bill over his head. (Immense cheering). 
And then he said we had made war upon him. (Laughter). 

"Then we said of these rebels who had scattered graves over the 
whole land, that before these graves were covered with the sod, and 
before the little orphans had ceased to watch for the fathers who would 
never return, they should not enter our Congressional halls. (Great ap- 
plause). We said to the President, "You are the President, but if we un- 
derstand ourselves you are not the Congress." (Cheers.) "You have the 
executive power, but not the legislative." "If you choose to admit them 
to the White House, hold high carnival with these rebels, it is your privi- 
lege — it is a matter of taste — but as for us, we do not mean to have such 
people in Congress" (Cheers), and if my recollection serves me right, none 
of them got in. (Laughter and applause). And as long as those I am as- 
sociated with feel as they do, and the people sustain ns, none of them will 
get in. They tell us the South must be represented. They must, indeed, 
but mind you, the loyal State organizations— not the rebels. They say, 
"You say the States are out of the) Union." Nothing of the kind — 
the President says that when the Rebellion collapsed, all civil government 
was destroyed in those Stat'-s. If that is so. new governments must be 
built up.— Who is to biiild them up? From what sonrre comes the power 



92 HAMILTON WARD. 

to build them up? You will see, by examining the Constitution, that the 
United States is to guarantee to every State a republican form of govern- 
ment. Who are the United States? I think they are composed of such 
audiences as I see before me— and I do not think Andrew Johnson com- 
poses the United States. 

"I submit that in the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, seven of the States 
recently in rebellion against the United States, there are no legal State 
governments. They have governments de fat'.to but none de jure. These 
governments have all been organized in this manner. The President issued 
a proclamation appointing a provisional governor for each of these States, 
commencing with North Carolina, which was a type of the whole, each of 
the others being the same in effect as that. This proclamation recited that 
in the State of North Carolina "the rebellion has in its revolutionary pro- 
gress deprived the people of the State of North Carolina of all civil gov- 
ernment," and a like concession is made as to all the other State govern- 
ments named in the proclamation authorizing the incipient steps for the 
formation of a State government. 

"I will not argue whether the President was right in this assumption 
or not. I think the simple assertion that he was is fully sustained by the 
ti'stimony of that important period and the events within the recollection 
of us all. I shall treat the proposition as conceded. 

"Those States were then without civil government, wholly depend- 
ant upon the military arm to preserve order in their territory. They were 
entitled nndor the Constitution to a civil government, and "Republican 
in form." Where does this power reside to grant them this government 
"Republican in form?" The ready answer is found in the Constitution. 
The 4th section of the 4th article of the Constitution provides that "The 
United States" shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican 
form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion, and 
on application to the legislature, or the executive (when the legislature 
cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

"The United States shall exercise this power — not the President. The 
United States makes the guaranty — not the Commander-in-Chief. What 
agent does the constitution authorize to make these guarantees for the 
United States? it may be asked. Does it not create the President its agent 
for that purpose? The answer to the interrogatory depends upon the na- 
ture of the power to be exercised. If it is executive in its character, then 
the President must exercise it. If it is legislative in its character, then 
Congress must exercise the power subject to the veto prerogative of the 
executive. By no rule of construction, it seems to me, can this be regarded 



ICLMIKA Sl'EECH 1866. 03 

as an oxocntive powoi-. If it be so, tlien indeed are the powers of the ex- 
<>cutive overshadowing and dangerous, for with this suupreme authority 
to give civil government to a disorganized State, his inclination would only 
limit his becoming at such time as this, a despot and a tyrant. Congress 
would dwindle into a mere register of his edicts— an idle spectator of the 
scene. 

'•From the nature of the duty imposed it must be legislative. Civil 
government to a Statf cannot be secured without legislation. The consti- 
tutional agent must either legislate itself or authorize others to do so. The 
President cannot legislate himself. Can he authorize others to do it? Can 
lie authorize the legislature of Georgia, for instance, to do so? Can he do 
by proxy what he cannot do himself? Clearly not. 

•'A Republican form of government cannot exist unless wise and 
just laws are provided for the government of the people, protecting them 
in their personal and political rights. Can such a government spring out 
of and be controlled by simple military appointments, emanating from the 
Commander-in-Chief. Are these laws to be military orders or the solemn 
enactment of legislative bodies. If this Republican form of government 
be the result of legislation, the Constitution defines where the power to 
grant it is invested. Section 1st, Article 1st provides that all legislative 
power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States 
which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. This power 
is nowhere in the Constitution, expressly or by implication, conferred upon 
the President. His duties are clearly defined and specially enumerated. 

"But Congress has a wider range. General powers are given it in 
broad language sufficient to cover emergencies that it was foreseen might 
arise, and which have arisen in the course of our national life, and in con- 
• Inding its enumerated and general powers in the last sub-division of Sec- 
lion 8, Article 1st, it is provided for Congress to make all laws which shall 
be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, 
and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the 
United States, or in any Department or officer thereof. 

"Here, then, in broad and clear terms, the duty is thrust upon Con- 
gress to carry out this power of guaranteeing (o 'every State in the Union 
a Republican form of government.' 

"Again, the Constitution commits the whole subject matter of State 
and territorial goverament, so far as the national government has any 
power over them, to Congress. Thus — "New States may be admitted by 
the Congress into the Union." — Art. 4, Sec. 3. Congress shall have power 
to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the 
territories and other property. — Same section. Was the Constitution thus 



94 HAMILTON WARD. 

careful to vest in Congress these powers and to deprive it of the anala- 
gous power of reconstructing a State whose civil government had been 
destroyed by the enemies of the Union?— a power of the same character 
as that of admitting a new State? It seems entirely clear that my con- 
struction is the just and sound one. By it the Legislative and the execu- 
tive branches of the government work in harmony, and each performs its 
part of the great duty. By the other construction the President is su- 
preme in a matter purely legislative in its character, and Congress is ig- 
nored. 

"I should not occupy so much time and space in establishing what 
seems so clear a proposition, but for the fact that it is claimed with ap- 
parent sincerity in certain quarters that this vast power is vested ex- 
clusively with the President, and as a consequence the State organizations 
referred to were legal, and their Representatives and Senators should be 
received as commissioned by and representing legal organizations. 

"How then were the present State governments in those States or- 
ganized? Simply by proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief. He ap- 
pointed a provisional governor for each State, directed that Governor to 
call a convention, the President prescribing the qualifications of voters 
for delegates to that convention, and directing that "said convention, when 
convened, or the legislature that may be hereafter assembled, will pre- 
scribe the qualifications of electors and the eligibility of persons to hold 
office." So the President assumes to vest legislative power in the con- 
vention, or the Legislature thereafter to assemble. This, as I have shown, 
he clearly cannot do. 

"What do these conventions do? They change in many respects the 
constitution of their respective States. They provide for the election of 
State officers, judicial officers, members of Congress, and members of the 
State Legislature. Thus, by virtue of illegal and imconstitutional means, 
the State governments are created and members of Congress are elected in 
pursuance thereof. The foundation being unwarranted by law the whole 
superstructure reared upon it falls to the ground. The election of mem- 
bers of Congress is illegal and void, so that Congress in exercising the con- 
stitutional right of judging of the 'election returns and qualifications of its 
own members,' must necessarily exclude the members and senators thus 
illegally elected. It is not a qeustion whether they send loyal men simply. 
The question is have the States acted at all? 

"The constitution does provide in effect that each State shall be en- 
titled to two Senators, and at least one Representative, and hence much 
complaint is made gainst Congress that it is depriving rebel States of the 
Constitutional right of representation. This complaint brings us back to 



ELMIKA SPEECH 180G. 95 

the question just considtitHl— whether the State has acted at all— whether 
these men are legally or illegally elected. If they are not legally elected 
then they do not represent the State. The governments that sent them 
here are simple usurpations, and not 'the State.' Congress, while it admits 
the legal representatives of legal States, must see to it that it is the State 
that comes and knocks at the door and not a combination of lawless indi- 
viduals. The powers of a State, that by the rebellion of its people has 
been deprived of 'all civil government,' lie dormant, and cannot be exer- 
cised either in electing Senatoi's and Representatives, or any other right 
which the State has in its normal relation to the Union., except in one of 
two ways: By the spontaneous and bona fide action of the loyal people 
of the State, free from dictation or control of the military power, which 
action shall be ratified and approved by laws of Congress, or else the Con- 
gress must pass enabling acts which will give them the machinery with 
which to resume their practical relations to the Union, and to elect their 
Representatives and Senators, and to guarantee to them a 'Republican 
form of government.' 

''No, Mr. President, we do not recognize these organizations as 
States. Whenever you present to us a loyal constituency, sending us a 
loyal representative, we will admit him. — The moment the State of Ten- 
nessee had disfranchised her rebels, and ratified the constitutional amend- 
ments, we welcomed her representatives to the floor with open arms. (Ap- 
plause.) You should have witnessed the scene when radical New Eng- 
land shook hands with radical Tennessee. (Great cheering). But as long 
iis the sun shall shine upon our heads, we never shall consent, with God's 
blessing, that one of these rebels shall get back into power. For this what 
are you told? You are told that we are a rump Congress — that we are try- 
ing to destroy the Union of the States. Who tells you thatV Alexander II. 
Stephens, Robert E. Lee, and Raphael Semmes and Jeff Davis tell you 
that (Laughter), and certain office holders, who tjemble for fear their 
heads will come off. They are going down to Philadelphia. Who is going 
there? Stephens, Vallandigham, Semmes and Ben Wood. I don't know 
who is the man from this district. 

"I understand they had a convention at Hornellsvile, the other day. 
and one of the members of the convention told me that they had hired 
a large hall, intending to have a big gathering, but when they got to- 
gether there were but six all told, and so they concluded to hold their con- 
vention in a bed room, and make of it a strictly private transaction. With 
your permission I will read in this connection a letter for an energetic 
young radical, residing in the same town I do, to his brother, who is a 
delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. I begged a copy of it, which is as 
follows: 



96 HAMILTON WARD. 

"Belmont, August 9th, 1866. 
"Brother Pitt:— Herewith I send you a Confederate five dollar bill. 
As you are about to depart for the Philadelphia Convention I think the 
opportunity a good one to have it collected. If Mr. Stephens is unable 
to pay the gold upon it you may receive U. S. Currency. You can receive 
to yourself 50 per cent, for collection. The balance you may apply to ob- 
taining a pardon for Gov. Hahn, of Louisiana, for his base conduct toward 
your confreres in supporting the United States Government during the great 
rebellion. Your brother, 

"JAS. R. ANGEL. 
"To W. P. Angel, Olean, Del. to Phil. Con. 

"P. S. — If you cannot get anything else you may send me one of Ben 
Wood's lottery tickets, or a post office. J. R. A." 

"There will be a precious gathering at Philadelphia, but I am per- 
suaded that it will turn out some as a man did I once heard of who 
brought a lot of old iron to a blacksmith and told him that he wanted a 
plough made of it. In a few days the farmer called for his plough, but the 
blacksmith said to him, 'My dear sir, that iron of yours won't make a 
plough, but I think it will make a shovel plough.' In the course of time 
the farmer demanded his shovel plough, but the blacksmith said to him, 
'That iron of yours won't make a shovel plough but I think it will make 
an excellent wedge.' By and by the farmer called for his wedge, but the 
blacksmith said to him, 'My dear sir, that iron of yours won't make a 
wedge, but I know it will make a first-rate clevis.' Wheni the farmer came 
for his clevis, the blacks^mith said to him, '^ly dear sir, that iron of yours 
won't make a clevis, but if we heat it red hot, and make it into a ball, 
and throw it into the cooling tub, it will make one grand big fizzle.' — 
(Laughter), There will be just enough of Union material in the Phila- 
delphia convention to make one grand big fizzle. (Laughter and cheers). 
"The President vetoed every measure that we deemed for the salva- 
tion of the government. We then submitted a plan for reconstruction. 
The first section of that proposition recites, in substance, the Civil Rights 
Bill, that all persons born in the United States should be citizens of the 
United States — that the privileges and immunities of the citizens should 
not be infringed upon by any State. It was a new bill of rights akin to 
that which was wrung from the barons by King John, hundreds of years 
ago. There was another proposition— that the rebel debt should never be 
assumed by the United States— that the public debt should remain inviolate, 
and that those men who had perjury stamped upon their souls, by leaving 
the service of the nation they had sworn to sustain, and going into the re- 



ELMIRA SrEECII 1800. 97 

bellion, should never hold office again. It said nothing about suffrage — 
it simply proposed to extend these rights to all people. It proposed to 
place beyond question the national debt, and the refusal to assume the rebel 
debt. The man who made all the valiant declarations when he assumed 
the Presidential chair, sent au impertient message to Congress, indicating 
that he should throw the entire weight of his administration against the 
propositions. Then we saw that he abandoned and made war upon us. — 
It is a solemn thing to say that I believe to-night that the rebels have con- 
trol of the government! (Great sensation). How else can you explain 
the fact that the military in Louisiana were called in aid of the rioters iu 
New Orleans? I know Gov. Hahn, I know his heart, and every pulsation 
of it beats in unison with the dearest interests of the liepublic;— and 
when I read of his being dragged in the streets like a felon, for daring 
to meet with others iu the Union Convention, I blush for shame that the 
President should order the brave and gallant Sheridan to aid the rebel 
authorities, if necessary, in completing this hellish work. — What else does 
the order mean? The convention was broken up. Some of the members 
were murdered, and others were thrown into prison. I told you a little 
while ago, that he got the answer, in this riot, to the question why he or- 
ganized these governments.— When it was suggested that a new govern- 
ment should be organized, to take its place, and that Congress might ad- 
mit it, a mob was gathered to break up the convention. 

"Now, what are we to do, my friends? I believe in the people. I 
believe that all over this fi-ee north, men irespective of any party will 
rally to the defense of the nation. My only hope is, that all over this free 
country, there shall swell up such a storm of indignation that not Mr. 
Johnson, but the men who control him, shall tremble — that they shall be 
admonished that the North will not submit to rebels controlling the coun- 
try. (Applause). That they shall understand that the only way for them 
to get back into Congress is to come as Tennessee came, with their gov- 
ernment in the hands of our friends, and not of our enemies. If you 
falter, if you are divided, if you fail to sustain the policy of your repre- 
sentatives, the rebels will hold high carnival in the halls of Congress. 
Afen will get into Congress who will repudiate your national debt, and 
your greenback may not be worth a dollar; and with these rebel bonds, 
and paper owned by these rebels in power, how are you to know that they 
will not be saddled upon you to pay? I left you fifteen years ago, a boy 
with bounding hopes. I come back to you now in middle age to plead 
with yon for the life of the nation. I believe that the people will not 
falter, but will strike such blows upon this budding treason as shall crush 
it out, and that the people will go on and rooonstruct the republic 



98 HAMILTON WARD. 

with right and freedom to all, and that it will lift up the down-trodden 
and make this country free and pure indeed, and that it shall stand out 
and be a bright and shining light among the nations of the earth. (Ap- 
plause). God has not raised np this people to falter and shrink in such 
an emergency. 

"I have the honor of addre.ssing so many of the fair and beautiful 
to-night, that 1 must say to them all in the struggle through which we 
have passed they have been true to the republic in every way. — (Cheers). 
While their Southern sisters were tearing the old Hag iji shreds, and in- 
sulting the Union soldiers in the field and in the prison, and the dead men 
in the trench, the women of the North were contributing to the wants ami 
comfort of the soldier in every way, and were hovering like angels over 
field, hospital and camp, comforting the sick and smoothing the pillow 
of the dying; and even now are gathering all over this laud, the orphans 
of the lost heroes to houses of comfort and to their heart of hearts. (Ap- 
plause). 

"And to those men who have taken their lives iii their hands, and 
amidst the shock of battle and roar of the cannon, and the groans of dy- 
ing comrades, have upheld the starry flag, and conquered through all, and 
swept armed treason from the land — they will not suffer this Republic to 
perish. I do not believe that Andrew Johnson can get one of them. The 
bummei-s. and cowards, and sneaks, will follow his standard, but not a 
true hearted soldier of the Union. 

"To illustrate the present condition of the South, and the hostility 
of the rebels towards Union men, permit me to read the following extract 
from a letter to me from Capt. J. W. Etheridge, formerly captain in the 
First North Carolina Union Volunteers, under date of June 19th, 18G5, 
in which he says: 

"I am one of the truly loyal of North Carolina, but we are in a 
worse condition than a slave prior to the war, and all over Union men 
are in the same condition. I hope that the 'rebel attorney,' Andrew John- 
son, will be overruled by a true Congress." 

"What a spectacle! The scarred soldiers of the Republic to write 
to us that they are in a worse condition than slaves! — amd this to be upheld 
by the President of the United States! I will say to Mr. Johnson and to 
Mr. Seward that there was once an administration that betrayed the 
people that temporized with treason, and allowed traitors to do their hell- 
ish work. I point the President to Mr. Buchanan, who, in retirement and 
contempt is dragging out his days, hated and despised by his countrymen, 
who once delighted to honor him. I point Mr. Seward to the fate of Mr. 
Toucy, and the other members of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, who were false 



CAMPAIGN OF 1SG6. 99 

to the trust reposed in them. If you have a President who has betrayed 
you. I point him to the fate of the gentlemen I have named. The people 
are in earnest in this matter, they will go on in the work, and whoever 
arrays himself against them, will be swept from the path as if by the be- 
som of destruction. (Cheers). 

"Fellow citizens, I believe, as I said before, that Cod is in this work 
—that he has not designed this nation to be crushed, but that it shall live, 
and grow, and streugtheuu But we have a work to do. From now on 
until the time that November's sun shall set upon election day, let us stir 
up the public heart to stand by a loyal Congress and rebuke a treacherous 
administration. (Loud and prolonged cheers)." 

Shortly before this speech Mr. Ward had an interview 
with Johnson's pohtical manager. Thurlow Weed, which is 
best described by the Tril^une correspondent, who says : 

Washington, July 2, 18U(>. 

The President's warfare on Congress, taking the form of an attack 
on the influence of the Representatives, to be followed by concerted efforts 
to beat them in convention for renomination, and, failing in that, to beat 
them at the polls with Copperhead votes and the influence of the newly- 
appointed .Tohnson officials, has commenced in the Allegany district of New 
York with significant spitefulness. Seven postmasters, good Union men and 
good officials, recommended to their positions by the good and true repre- 
sentative, Hamilton Ward, have been removed. Mr. Ward protested against 
this wrong to the Assistant Postmaster General, Randall — remonstrated 
against it to Thurlow Weed, who was then here. When Randall showed 
himself to be inexorable in his purpose politically, Mr. Ward struggled to 
save the offices from falling into the possession of the vulgar mercenaries 
of politics who had been selected to fill them, and requested that they 
be given! to disabled soldiers. He entreated that the Angelica office 
be given to Mr. Charles, mutilated in battle, but qualified for its duties— 
that the Belmont office be given to Harrison Crandall, and that at Wells- 
ville to Captain Moses Stearnes, both scarred in their country's service, 
and named soldiers for all the other offices. This just and patriotic recpiest 
was unjustly and unpatriotically refused by Randall, with a supplementary 
insult to the party that is now burdened with feeding and clothing him, ex- 
pressed in his angry declaration to Mr. Ward, "This matter has got to bo 
fought out between Congress and the President." He also gave Mr. Ward 
notice that "there was to be a general removal of all postmasters who do 
not favor the President's policy."' 

Mr. Ward, as I have said, went to Thurlow Weed to have the work 
of removing good Union men in Allegany countv arrested. His success 
Lci'C. 



100 HAMILTON WARD. 

with this politician was quite equal to that with Randall. After retiring 
from the interview he made a memoraudum of the couveisation between 
them while it was fresh in his mind. For the political enlightenment of 
the hundreds of thousands in the State of New York who fought aud bled, 
and gave of their sons, their husbauds, their brothers, aud of their money, 
to the holy war against rebellion and slavery, I send you this remarkable de- 
claration of war by Andy Johnson against the Unionists of the Empire 
State, made through the aged adjutant general of the President's chief of 
staff, the Secretary of State: 

, June 25, 1866. 

I had learned that one Sherman, from Allegany county, New York, 
in company with Mr. Weed, was in W^ashington to secure the removal of 
certain postmasters in the district I have the honor to represent (the 
twenty-seventh district. New York). 

I saw Mr. Weed about 8:30 A. M., at Willard's Hotel, and entered 
into conversation with him upon the subject, and stated to him that I came 
to see him about certain postmasters in that district. He said promptly 
and frankly, "Oh, yes; I shall do all I can to get them removed." 

I asked what reason there was for their removal. He said there was 
reason enough; they were not friendly to the President's plan of reconstruc- 
tion, but sustained the course of Congress. I said I did not suppose the 
policy would be to remove men who had supported Lincoln and .Johnson 
in 18(yi, and were still good Union men, unless they abused or denounced 
the President personally; that I had got that understanding, both from the 
President and the Postmaster General. 

He said that he (Weed) was in favor of removing all Federal ofBcers 
who did not support the President's policy and putting Administration men 
in their places. 

I said if this is so, why is it not made general? Why is the district 
I represent specially selected as a victim? He said that was merely 
accidental; that friends of his in Allegany county, on whom he could rely, 
had called his attention to the matter, and that he was in favor of the 
changes for the reasons (I have) given, and that as soon as it could be done, 
he was in favor of making the changes universal. I asked, is it any pei-- 
sonal hostility to me that prompts this selection? He said not. I then 
stated that as the Union member of Congress from that district. I felt that 
I was entitled to be consulted with reference to the distribution of the 
patronage of the district. He replied that my course in Congress did not 
justify me in that claim; that I had favored a policy opposed to the views 
of the Administration; that I would only hold my seat in Congress a few 
months longer; that it was the intention to secure the election of Admin- 
istration men in the place of the present radical members of Congress. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1S66. 101 

I then said, from what you say it appears to be your dpsign and that 
of the friends of the President generally to make war upon Congress, 
break up the Union party, and hand the Government over to the Copper- 
heads. He said he was in favor of restoring the Union; and that Congress 
by its course was preventing the desired restoration, and that Congress 
was as much disunion now as the rebels were during the Rebellion, and 
that Congress was breaking up the Union party and not the President. 

I said M-hile we differ as to the method of reconstruction, I have no 
doubt but it is the sincere desire of all true men to restore the country to 
peace and harmony, and when the issue of reconstruction was disposed of, 
I saw no difHculty in the Union party and Congress going along toj^ether. 
He said there was no hope of that; that Congress had made war upon the 
President and that the war must go on. 

I said, if that is the determination we might as well understand it. 

As an echo of the Elmira speech the Corning Journal of 
August 30th contained the following : 

Hon. John I. Nicks, Mayor of Elmira, has been removed from his 
office of U. S. Assessor for this Congressional District, and Col. William 
R. Judson, late of Kansas, but formerly Democratic Sheriff, appointed in 
his place. This removal was solely because Mayor Nicks would not becomft 
a Johnson man. On Tuesday night Mayor Nicks was serenaded by his 
friends. Three thousand Republicans were present to testify their approval 
of his political course. Speeches were made by Hon. H. Boardmau Smith 
and others, and the following resolutions were read by Charles G. Fairman, 
and adopted with cheers: 

Whereas, A Cabinet Minister of President Johnson has recently vis- 
ited our county, and stated that the administration would be satisfied if 
we send to Congress even a more radical man than Mr. Ward, so that it be 
not Mr. Ward himself, and 

Whereas, Thurlow Weed has stated that $1.^.000 can be had to beat 
the "little cuss," and 

Whereas, Henry J. Raymond has kindly offered if we would send 
any man but Ward, even a radical, he will see to it that the office-holders 
in the district retain their places— and that certain offices in the district 
shall be at the disposal of the opponents of Mr. Ward with which to bur 
the delegates of Steuben County against him, and, 



102 HAMILTON WARD. 

Whereas, It would be a bitter humiliation that our nomination should 
be made by such foreign and impertinent dictation, therefore 

Resolved, That the city delegation to the County Convention at 
Horseheads, convey to the convention this expression of our earnest wishes 
that they will see to it that Mr. Ward is returned to Congress, and the 
blister put again on the same old spot. 

The same paper contains an account of the Chemung 
Count)- Convention : 

CHEMUNG COUNTY FOR WARD. 

The Union Republican County Convention met at Horseheads yester- 
day and elected as State delegates E. P. Brooks, Luther Caldwell, Jesse 
Owen. On the informal ballot for Congressional delegates the result was, 
for delegates for Ward, 37; for Gen. Gregg, 38; for Dr. Beadle, 14. On the 
formal ballot the Ward ticket was elected, viz: John I. Nicks, 48; Jarvis 
Langdon, 47; Peter Wintermute, 47, and Henry F. Wells, 4.j votes. They 
were declared unanimously elected. Gen. Gregg being called on made 
an appropriate speech, assuring the convention of his hearty support of 
the nomination of Hon. H. Ward, if he received the nomination from the 
Congressional Convention. 

We rejoice that Chemung County has thus triumphantly endorsed Mr. 
Ward. When we saw that four of the five wards of the city of Elmira had 
gone for him we felt hopeful of this result. It is a patriotic tribute to a 
faithful public servant. No one is disposed to under-rate the ability and 
claims of the two distinguished citizens of Chemung whose names were 
urged in the convention, but it was deemed eminently proper to endorse 
Mr. Ward, as due to him, and a deserved rebuke for the dictation of the 
National Administration. 

The Ehnira Advertiser of Sept. 15, 1866. contains the 
following account of the Republican Union Convention : 

REPUBLICAN UNION CONVENTION. 

The Union Convention met at Hornellsville yesterday, Wednesday, 
Sept. 12th, and was called to order by Geo. W. Pratt, Esq., of Corning. 
Chairman of the District Committee, on whose motion the Hon. John I. 



IN CONGRESS. 103 

Nicks of Elmira was appointed Chairman. Mr. Nicks, in a brief speooh, 
thanked the convention for the honor conferred, and congratulated the 
Convention on the brigM prospects of tht; Union party and the unmis- 
takable signs of a glorious victory. J. H. Butler, of Steuben, and J. S. 
Green, of Alleganiy, were appointed secretaries. The credentials of the 
following delegates were presented and approved: 

Allegany— 1st District.— James S. Green, Orrin Stacy, William Van 
Northam. 

Second District.— Royal T. Howard, David Rawson, W. A. Hart. 

Chemung.— John I. Nicks, David Decker, Peter Wintermute, H. P. 
Wells. 

Steuben— 1st District.— E. R. Kasson, J. H. Butler, A. Hadden. 

Second District.— Chester S. Cole, Lyman Balcom, O. S. Wetmore, 

Third District.— Geo Riddle, Edward Kidler, C. D. Robison. 

The HoTi. Lyman Balcom, of Steuben county, then arose and moved 
that the Hon. Hamilton Ward be, and is hereby unamiously nominated, 
and by acclamation, as the Union candidate for Congress at the coming 
election. The motion was carried by the whole Convention rising and 
voting in favor thereof. The Chair declared the motion unanimously 
adopted. 

E. R. Kasson, Dr. C. D. Robinson and David Decker were appointed 
a committee to wait upon Mr. Ward and inform him of the action of the 
Convention and request his attendance before the same. — The committee 
shortly appeared accompanied by the Hon. H. Ward, who upon being 
introduced proceeded to address the Convention, thanking it for the honor 
conferred and promising to continue as faithful in the future as in the past. 
—Mr. Ward continued at some length in discussion of National affairs to 
the evident gratification of the Convention, after which Mr. L. Caldwell 
was called upon, who briefly addressed the meeting. 

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the Union Republicans of this district cordially sustain 
the plan submitted by Congress for the reconstruction of the Union, as 
being imperative for the future peace and welfare of the country, believ- 
ing, as we do, that the States which rebelled against the best Government 
ever instituted by man, thereby forfeited their rights, and that those who 
fought to destroy the Union should not be immediately restored to positions 
of power in the Halls of Congress. 

Resolved, That the treachery of the President of the United States 



104 HAMILTON WARD. 

and his chief cabinet minister, merits the eondeniuation and contempt 
of all loyal men, and as the Republican party is founded upon principle 
and i-ests its hope of permanent triumph upon the intelligence, virtue and 
patriotism of the people, we feel sure that the treachery of honored and 
trusted leaders will not avail to defeat the objects for which said party was 
formed. 

Resolved, That in the re-nominatiom of Hon. Hamilton Ward, as the 
representative in Congress for this district, we discharge a duty to a faith- 
ful and able member, whose voice, influence and vote have been true to the 
party that elected him; that we cordially endorse him as a true and cour- 
ageous defender of Republican principles, and as an earnest, sagacious and 
distinguished advocate of the Rights of Man, and it gives us especial 
pleasure that by this signal approval of his official career, we are show- 
ing to Andrew Johnson that the Freedom-loving voters of this Congres- 
sional District spurn his bribes, defy his dictation and challenge his 
further hostility by returning a member of Congress who "will be a blister 
on the same old spot." 

(Signed) JOHN I. NICKS, Chairman. 

J. S. GREEN, 

J. H. BUTLER, 
Secretaries. 

Mr. Ward's vote was largely increased over 1S64. He 
ran ahead of the Governor and carried Allegany County by 
a plurality of 3728 and the district by over 6300, an in- 
creased plurality of 800. This increased plurality was par- 
ticularly gratifying in view of the extremely radical position 
taken by him in opposition to President Johnson, being 
as Noah Davis said in a letter to him of Nov. loth, 1866 
"The first member who dared 'beard the lion in his den.' " 

On the reassembling of Congress Mr. Ward felt that 
the question of negro suffrage could no longer be neglected 
and on the 13th day of December he delivered the follow- 
ing speech : 

SPEECH OF HON. HAMILTON WARD, OF NEW YORK, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 13, 18G6. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the 
Union, and having under consideration the President's annual message — 



SrEECH ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE ISGG. 105 

ME. WARD, of New York, said: 

Mr Chairman: The country has spoken; the popular verdict stands 
recorded in the recent elections; and the Thirty-Ninth Congress reassem- 
bles strengthene<l, encouraged, and instructed by the great tribunal to 
which it appealed, the loyal people of the United States. 

Great admonitions flow from this result. The President is admon- 
ished that his "policy" of reconstruction is not indorsed by the people 
who put down the rebellion and saved the Republic; that his denunciations 
of the legislative branch of the Government, in which he charges them 
with revolutionary designs, with striving to prevent Mie reunion of the 
States, with "hanging upon the vei-ge of the Government." and with be- 
ing a "tyi-annical, domineering, and uncooistitutional Congress," are not 
approved: that his reorganizing the rebellion into pretended State govern- 
ments in the disloyal States, and insisting that they are legal State organi- 
zations and entitled to representation in Congress, without affording any 
security or protection to the loyal men in those States, and in defiance and 
contempt of the law-making power of the Government and the representa- 
tives of the people; that his indiscriminate pardon of rebels, his failure 
to bring any of them to punishment for the most infamous of crimes, his 
sustaining the murder of Uniom men in New Orleans, and his failure to 
give any protection to the loyal whites and the freedmen of the South 
who are shot down in the streets and murdered in their beds at night for 
the sole offense of faithfulness to the Government of their fathers, his 
refusal to bring any of those murderers to punishment for their crimes; 
that his relieving rebel property from the confiscation that the law 
imposes; diverting the public money to create illegal State organizations 
and to pay officers of his own creation in violation of law; that his attempt 
by the use of the vast patronage confided to him for a wise purpose to sap 
the independence of Congress, and, failing in that, to corrupt and de- 
bauch the people, the sources of power, by removing from office men, 
whether they had borne arms in the defense of the country and had come 
hack scarred and maimed from the grandest battle-fields in history or (not, 
who sustained the integrity and independence of Congress, and substi- 
tuting in their place the creatures of his will, some of whom were men 
whose hands were stained with the blood of heroes shed in the nation's 
behalf; and his manifest contempt, in his appointments to offices, of the 
"advice and consent of the Senate" of the United States; that his opposi- 
tion to the just and wise constitutional amendments proposed by Con- 
gress for adoption by the States, and thereby encouraging a spirit in the 
South against a speedy restoration to peace and prolonging the time of 



100 IIAMILTOX WAED. 

adjustment and pacification; in short, that nearly his whole conduct, 
official and unofficial, from his 4th of March presentation, to his gyrations 
"round the circle," have received from the people to whom he so con- 
fidently appealed the strongest condemnation, the most withering rebuke. 

And those mercenary men, who, without principle and devoid of 
honor, for the sake of plunder, followed the standard of their apostate 
chief into the camp of the traitors; they are admonished by the result 
that the contempt and scorn of all honest men will be their portion as 
long as they shall live! Have these worthies sensibility enough left to 
appreciate the "situation," or is the result as to them like "casting pearls 
before swine?" 

But, Mr. Chairman, the admonition does not stop here; it comes with 
tremendous force to the Congress of the United States. You have done 
well, say the people, but you have not done enough. Eight months you 
stood on guard to keep traitors from the high places of power; you pro- 
posed needed changes in the Constitution, passed the "Freedmen's 
Bureau" and "civil rights bills," and recognized the loyal people of the 
State of Tennessee as entitled to representation in Congress— all that wa« 
well, but we require you to do more. And, Mr. Chairman, I believe that 
this grand and sublime manifestation of the popular will haa a far deeper 
Bigniticance. While it approves of what has been done, it decides that the 
work is still incomplete; it indicates that at last, after passing through 
centuries of contest and blood, combating with thrones and despots, with 
false systems, political and religious; with persecution, ignorance, and su- 
perstition, the great principle should at last be asserted on this continent 
and ingrafted upon our i-egeneratetl nationality, that all men, native-born 
or naturalized in this country, shall be equal before the law, equal at the 
ballot-box, equal before man as they are before God. 

Who that has watched the terrible ordeal through which we have 
passed can have failed to discover the superintending protection of Heaven 
all through the darkness and gloom until our salvation was complete, can 
now doubt that in this crowning victory at the ballot-box the "voice of the 
people is the voice of God?" 

Sir, the responsibility of rebuilding the shattered column of the na- 
tional edifice rests upon Congress. All hope of favorable co-operation from 
the President must be abandoned. To Congress the four million loyal 
people of the South are looking for protection. Away in the Southern 
homes, or in the mountains and caves to which they have fled for safety, 
or languishing in dungeons, or suffering in exile, they are offering up their 
daily prayers to God in our behalf and stretching forth their hands to us 
for help. The loyal millions who have just spoken at the polls; the silent 
throng of cripples and mourners that sadden the land; the sacred dead 



SPEECH ON NEGRO SUFFliAGE IStJG. 107 

that fell in the struggle; the sacrifices of blood and treasure the country 
has made; the holy cause of liberty and free goveniment itself, all appeal 
to us to come up to the high demands of the hour, to do our whole duty, 
do it promptly, and do it well. 

What is that duty? One, sir, that has been too long neglected. I 
was one of those who belie%'ed last session that Congress should then have 
gone to the root of the matter and reorganize from the foundation. I was 
in favor, as some honurahle gentlemen here well know, of providing by law 
of Congress for the reorganization of the State governments in all the 
States that have been in rebellion, except the State of Tennessee, and 
that in that reorganization all loyal men, irrespective of color, should take 
part. I still believe that we should have done so; but more timid counsels 
prevailed. Gentlemen feared that the people were not ready for this; that 
they had not reached the high standpoint necessary to approve such a 
course. I hope these gentlemen have learned that the people are ahead 
of them, that they are radical, that they comprehend the whole question; 
and, sir, they will insist upon their representatives doing everything that 
the nation needs. 

The most radical men of this Congress are returned by the largest 
majorities, while all of those in the originally free States, and most of 
those from the slave, who followed the pernicious example of the Presi- 
dent and left the Union party are rejected by the people. 

Then away with your timid conservatism; away with that quality 
that would compromise the right, that would barter away equality, jus- 
tice, and plighted faith for expediency, trade, and the good-will of traitors. 
I am sick of your expediency men and measures; the times demand radi- 
cal men and measures. Radicalism crowded the Mayflower, landed on Ply- 
mouth Rock, dotted settlements along the Atlantic coast, declared "not one 
cent for tribute, but millions for defense," threw the tea into Boston Har- 
bor, made the immortal Declaration, achieved our independence, redeemed 
this great land from the wilderness, built the school house and the church, 
covered the land with cities and towns, and the ocean with ships, stretched 
the electric cord through the great waters so that continent talked with 
continent under the sea, sent two million men to the front, crushed out the 
rebellion, kept traitors out of Congress, repudiated Andrew Johnson, the 
rebels, and Copperheads by more than half a million majority, and now 
it proposes to reap all the fruits of the great victories of the sword and the 
ballot-box by reconstructing the Republic upon a sound and just basis so 
that it will stand forever. 

We must be fearless as well as just: we must punish traitors and 
stand by our friends "though the heavens fall." We have a fearful re- 
sponsibility to meet; we have not discharged our duty to the ten unrecon- 



108 HAMILTON WARD. 

structed States. The collapse of the rebellion left those States without 
civil government and without a "republican form of government." In such 
an emergency it devolved upon Congress to "guarantee" to them a "repub- 
lican form of government." This could not be done by proclamation of 
the E.xecutive or by military orders, but only by law, by solemn acts of 
legislation of the law-making power of the United States; for it is the 
highest act of legislation to guarantee and provide civil government for a 
State. 

When the fathers of the Republic founded this unequalled system of 
government: when in the great councils that they held to frame a Con- 
stitution that, in the language of its preamble, "should establish justice, 
insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and pos- 
terity." when they were gathering from all ages, all political systems, and 
all history the materials with which to construct the new edifice that was 
to be consecrated to those high and noble ends, they with prophetic vision 
dimly foresaw that the time might come in the nation's life when, through 
the machinery of State governments, sections, or interests in conflict, real 
or imaginary, with the policy of the General Government, might seek by 
revolution to sever the connection of that State or section with the Union, 
and that in the revolution thus inaugurated all law, all authority, all gov- 
ernment, executive, legislative, and judicial, might be overthrown so that 
the State and people afifeeted thereby would be practically without a re- 
publican form of government, and then, with the great wisdom that dis- 
tinguished all their deliberations, they provided for that contingency and 
vested the power of reorganizing those States in the national Congress; 
and while the exercise of this power is new, the power itself is as old as 
the Con.stitution. To what else could this constitutional provision refer; 
the admission of new States and the care of the Territories and other 
property of the United States are provided for in other sections. It could 
not relate to anything but the reconstruction of old States that had wan- 
dered away from their allegiance and the people of which desired to re- 
turn to that allegiance. 

Again, the great Charter provided for the security of life, liberty, 
and protection to the rights of property. These are the great ends of tho 
Government they were founding; for these the Revolution was fought, in- 
dependence achieved, and the Constitution established. And if these 
rights God-given and thus guaranteed were denied the people and legislation 
were needed in the premises, where did the Constitution vest the power 
thus to legislate? In the very first section of the first article of the Con- 
stitution it is provided that — 



SPEECH ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 186G. lOtt 

"AH legislative power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress 
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives." 

And again, in the last subdivision of section eight of the same arti- 
cle, it is provided that Congress shall — 

"Make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any Department 
or oflJcer thereof." 

It is submitted, Mr. Chairman, that such legislation can be had by 
Congress as may be necessary to secure those great ends. Am I told that 
this is a new construction'? If new, then I say that it is time that the 
Constitution was construed in the interests of liberty and on the side of 
justice. Slavery, thank God, is abolished. The heresy of "State rights" 
went down with the monstrous system that gave it birth. This all-con- 
trolling influence of human bondage, oppression, and guilt that stalked 
into legislative halls, made Presidents, made Cabinet ministers, shaped 
the policy of this country, stood behind power, over shadowed courts, and 
put constructions upon the Constitution consistent with its own interest 
and to perpetuate its own power, no longer rules the Government, makes 
its laws, or writes its judicial opinions. 

And now let us construe the Constitution as it was intended by its 
framers, not to make men slaves, but freemen; not to take life, but to save 
it; not to rob men of their property, but to secure that property to them; 
not to deprive them of the liberty of speech and of the press, but to place 
those rights beyond jeopardy. I think it is clear that Congress has all 
the needed power to reorganize by law the gjvernments of those States, 
and it follows that the particular means to be resorted to to effect that ob- 
ject are such as Congress shall determine. 

But we are told that those ten States are reorganized, that they have 
State governments. I am aware that there are rebel machines in the ter- 
ritory recently in rebellion that call themselves States. I am aware that 
the President has undertaken to galvanize them into States by proclama- 
tion, but no good lawyer will for a moment contend that these organiza- 
tions have any validity as State governments until they are recognized a« 
valid by Congress. They are monstrous systems of fraud, oppression, and 
murder. They exclude from power all men loyal to the Union. They 
screen from merited punishment the assassins of ten thousand loyal mea 
who have been butchered in their territory since they "accepted the situ- 
ation." They deny to Union men and freedraen that which the Consti- 
tution guarantees to tliem. They were erected without the consent of tha 



110 HAMILTON WARD. 

people, and decided to be without validity by the highest court of North 
Carolina; aud whenever the question comes for final decision before the 
United States Supreme Court, no doubt can exist but the decision of the 
North Carolina court will be sustained. They have had the audacity to 
elect Senators and Representatives to Congress almost exclusively from 
the leaders of the rebellion, and because they were such leaders aud were 
the most conspicuous in the work of destroying this government; and those 
"statesmen," instead of being suspended with a pressure of hemp about 
their necks, as they richly deserve, are coolly demanding seats in the Con- 
gress of the United States. 

Ah, Mr. Chairman, we have neglected the duty too long of formally 
rejecting these creatures of treason. We must begin the work anew and 
provide by law that all male persons in those States aside from the ex- 
cepted classes of the age of twenty-one years, nativ-born or naturalized, 
shall have the right to vote in electing delegates to conventions to frame 
new State constitutions or amend old ones, in electing State, legislative aud 
judicial officers, and all other elections that may occur in the reorganiza- 
tion of these State governments; that no person who has engaged in rebel- 
lion shall be eligible to office in the new State organization or in the cour 
ventions aforesaid. 

The excepted classes are all persons that have held office, civil or 
military, under the Confederacy or in the army or navy thereof; all per- 
sons who have been educated at military or naval academies of the United 
States and afterward engaged in the rebellion; all persons who had once 
taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and then 
in any manner engaged in rebellion; all editors, authors, or publishers of 
any book, pamphlet, paper, or publication that advocated the cause of the 
rebellion, and all persons who were guerrillas, and persons carrying on war 
against the Government and not belonging to the regular army of the Con- 
federacy and acting under its direct orders. 

When the people thus acted and so framed their State constitutions 
and laws as should secure to all persons permitted, as above, to participate 
in the work of reorganization, and to all loyal men. full political aud civil 
rights, with the ballot as their shield and buckler, and shall disqualify from 
suffrage and from holding office all the persons and classes above ex- 
cepted, and when the Legislatures of those new State organizations adopt 
the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery and the amendments to 
the Constitution recently proposed by Congress, and shall present Senatora 
and Representatives that can take the Congressional oath of admission, 
then, sir. I would have Congress admit those Senators and Representa- 
tives, recognize those State governments as valid, and the work of restora- 
tion will be complete. 



SPEECH ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE 1SG6. Ill 

But, Mr. Chairman, it will be said that I am in favor of universal 
negro suCFrage at the South. Indeed, sir, I am. The ballot is the only 
protection after all that men have lin this country. Take the ballot away 
from a class and that class will not have equal rights with those who do 
exercise the ballot. Your civil rights bill is well, necessary, but what avail 
it unless it is enforced. Put it into the Constitution as you will, and as 
you should, but it will be as a rainbow in the cloud to the oppressed peo- 
ple of the South without there is some power there to enforce it; beautiful 
to look upon, but giving no warmth or light, (It "will hold the word of prom- 
ise to the ear and break it to the hope." 

We have a good civil rights bill in the Constitution as it stands. The 
freedom of the press, of speech, and protection to life, liberty, and property 
are secured thereby, and yet for more than half a century none of those 
rights have been enjoyed by a large portion of the Southern people; they 
were only granted to a privileged class. The black man was not allowed 
to learn to read the Constitution that pointed him to liberty, or the Bible 
that pointed him to God; the white man who had spoken or written against 
slavery was hange<l upon the nearest tree or banished from the realm. 
And so it will be again if suffrage is not impartial. Southern courts now 
<lefy and disobey the civil rights bill. Everything there is organized against 
the black man, from the judge upon the bench to the constable with his 
process; every officer. State, legislative, judicial, county, town, and mu- 
niripal, who is called upon in any manner to enforce those laws and carry 
out those sacred guarantees of the Constitution are the enemies of the loyal 
men and freedmen, and opposed to the execution of those laws and guar- 
antees. The black man is helpless to punish or remove from office those 
unfaithful officers; he has no vote, no place in the jury-box, no means of 
organization for the defense or his rights; but with the ballot in his hands 
all will be well; these officials will do him justice, and there will be in every 
State, county, town, and precinct in the South a power in the hands of our 
friends to protect themselves and to preserve the Republic. 

We cannot afford longer to feed these people upon husks. Wc de- 
nied them thelir rights until those rights were reasserted in the smoke of 
battle and in the blood of a million meni. Let us be wise at last. We put 
the bullet into their hands when traitors struck at the nation's life, why 
not give them the ballot to preserve that nation from treason in another 
guise. 

Their skins are black you say; ay, but their hearts are true and their 
blood is loyal. They were good enough to fight, why not good enough to 
vote. I cannot upon this subject but quote my own words upon a former 
occasion: 

"And the four million black men who were the slaves and under the 



112 HAMILTON WARD. 

control of the rebels, who were away from the Union lines and its protec- 
tion, who only knew God because they saw Him in the stars and heard 
Him in the winds — for the Bible to them was a forbidden book — they who 
had only known the flag from the stripes it gave them and the Union from 
the chadns it bound them with; they who from the first sent their morn- 
ing and evening prayers to Heaven that the nation might live, who fur- 
nished our soldiers flying from captivity and death with guide and shelter, 
food and fire, while the master let slip blood-hounds on the fugitive's track; 
who of the four millions betrayed a loyal man? Not one but exposed the 
traitor master. This faithfulness on the part of those poor, simple, ig- 
norant men is to my mind one of the grandest phases that the war has 
developed. 

"How strange the contrast between the slave in his chains and the 
master who had been pampered by the Governiment. The former kissed 
and upheld the rod that had smitten him, the latter smote the hand that 
fed him. And yet we are asked at this time to consign these loyal men, 
both white and black, to the mercy, as I have said, of these rebels and 
enemies. 

"I am free to say, Mr. Chairman, that if such is to be the poKcy 
of this Government it is recreant to its high duty; it is unworthy of all 
the blood shed and treasure expended in its cause; it deserves to perish 
in its ingratitude and be blotted from the face of the earth." 

But we are told, "give them a qualified suffrage," "give it to those 
who can read and write or who own property and pay taxes." 

As to the first proposition I must say that I deem it wholly imprac- 
ticable. We cannot with any justice or fairness apply an intelligence 
qualification to the black unless we do so to the white voters, and in so 
doing we would disfranchise many thousands who are now voters. We 
cannot take the back track and disfranchise loyal white men in the South 
and elsewhere who have exercised that privilege for years, and some of 
whom have confronted treason upon many a bloody field and have worn 
the livery of the Republic. Would you take the ballot from them? Besides 
we need them all to vote down traitors. Are they not good enough for 
that? 

We did not ask the black men at Port Hudson and at Petersburg 
whether they could read when we intrusted them with the country's honor 
and its flag; shall we insist upon it now when the ballot is needed for 
their and our protection in the South? As to a property qualification, that 
is simply absurd and a blot where it exists upon the civilization of the age, 
Benjamin Franklin's illustration in such a case, that it is the jackass that 
votes and not the man. has never been controverted. Discriminations in 



SPEECH ON NEGKO SUFFRAGE ISGO. 113 

political privilPKCs apainst some classes and in favor of others in a free 
country are odious and productive of popular discontent. The only true 
test of suffrage in this country is manhood; give it to all men; to the poor 
and the lowly; lift them up to the dignity of the sovereign. Some say that 
the ex-slave will vote as the ex-master directs; and this slander has beeo 
repeated in high official quarters. 

The ii.egro knew on which side to fight and to pray during the rebel- 
lion; he will know well on which side to vote; he has got his liberty after a 
century of oppression and bondage, he will guard that liberty well when 
he handles the ballo.t. 

These same objectors said that the negro would not fight, that ho 
would be guilty of all kinds of excesses in his newly-found liberty, that he 
would not work. Like the sixty day oracle of the State Department they 
are shoNvn to be false prophets. 

The negro fought well, he obeyed the law, he went to work like a 
good citizen; he is learning to read and write all over the South with an 
earnestness and a rapidity that is astonishing; trust him with the ballot he 
will use it better than a wliite traitor. 

But, says another, you would allow former rebels to vote. CertaLnJy 
I would allow the masses who were led into the rebellion, conscripted or 
forced into it, to resume the right of suffrage; I would have no conflict with 
them. Clothe them with this power and tl ;^ assure them that a just 
Government, while it punished the leaders tl the rebellion for example's 
sake and to prevent their doing further mischief, is humane and generous 
to the misguided masses. They got only poor fare and hard knocks from 
the Confederacy. Disqualify all their leaders, false teachers, and guides 
both from office and suffrage give the black man the ballot; trust 
the people; let the masses reconstruct the new State government. The 
people have interests and sympathies in common; they will readily assim- 
ilate and act together. 

Trusted by the Government and protected by it, those who have been 
disloyal will come to love it. In most of the States the men hitherto loyal 
will be in the majority, and in all the States powerful enough to defend 
themselves. Politicians and ambitious men will become the servants of 
their will; new men will spring up from the people faithful to our Govern- 
ment, who will assume the place of the leaders of to-day who have be- 
trayed the people almost to their destruction. 

Again, we cannot permanently disfranchise large bodies of men in 
this country with safety to the nation. Deprived of political power every 
Bubterfuge will be resorted to to regain it, and the masses will grow more 
restless and discontented until they sweep over all barriers, as they 
have in Maryland, and render the presence of the military continuously 



114 HAMILTON WARD. 

necessarj' to preserve the peace of the State. I hope Tennessee and Mis- 
Bouri will be wise in time by availing themselves of the black vote at once. 
With the Government in the hands of a majority of all the people of each 
State, all will be protected and the true theory of a free Government car- 
ried out, and the State is Kepublican indeed. Is not this a '•consumma- 
tion devoutly to be wished".'" 

That nation is wise whose policy tends to the elevation of the masses 
of its people, to dignify and honor labor, to give to all loyal citizens a share 
in the Government they uphold. In so doing each man feels a direct respon- 
•ibility in himself; he shares in the pride, glory, and prosperity of his coun- 
try; he feels great inducements to qualify himself for the duties of the citi- 
zen; he feels encouraged to educate his children that they may be better 
fitted still for those duties. When the land is assailed by foes from with- 
out or convulsions within he springs to arms as one whose personal rights 
and highest privileges are in danger. Each true man that is clothed with 
political rights is a pillar to the State; each mind that is derated in the 
scale of intelligence binds stronger the bonds of the Republic and makes 
liberty more secure. 

The instincts of the people, ignorant and lowly though they be, are 
right. They seek out justice and abhor tyrants; they are naturally in- 
clined to be loyal and true. Trust them and the nation will live, ignore 
them and the nation will perish. 

Why not meet the issue now? Why not, men of this Congress, come 
np to the high demands of the times and complete the work? We cannot 
put this negro question out of sight; like the ghost of the murdered Banquo, 
it will arise at every feast and "shake its gory locks" at us; it will not 
down at our bidding. All acknowledge that suffrage to the black man 
must come in time; why not insist upon it now, when we are building anew 
the national temple and have the power to accomplish it? As a matter 
simply of expediency, is it not better than to let the agitation go on for 
another generation, to be ended, perhaps, in another rebellion, in more 
blood? 

Adopt the plan I propose and all the States will be represented in 
the next Congress, the murder, persecution, and banishment of Union men 
will cease. The Constitution, the civil rights bill, and all other provisions 
of law for the protection of the people of the South will be a living fact 
realized in every portion of the South, for everywhere the loyal man will 
be clothed with the power of enforcing those rights. The South will turn 
its attention to reviving its exhausted fields and repairing its desolate 
places. The country, relieved of the problem of reconstruction, will turn 
its attention to many neglected questions of national importance, to reviv- 
ing its trade and industry, correcting the errors of its financial system, and 



SI'EECH OS NE(;K0 suffrage 1800. 115 

payiug its debts. Pursue the other poliiy further, let thiugs drift, and 
finally let those rebel organizations into Congress without giving our friends 
iu the South the protection of the ballot, and I can see many dark hours 
in store for the Republic. 

Mr. Chairnian, we may be told that Congress has agreed to admit 
the representatives from those States when they adopt the constitutional 
amendments now before them. Congress has agreed to no such thing, but 
1 most earnestly desire the adoption of those amendments, and we should 
insist upon it to the last. But you will observe that these rebel State or- 
ganizations do not propose to adopt the amendments. Some of them have 
already rejected them, and the tone of the Governors and presses of th» 
other States leave no doubt but the whole ten will reject them. This is in 
pursuance of the policy announced by Alexander H. Stephens, that the 
South would submit to no further conditions and forms — an additional rea- 
son why new State govemments should be organized in which the friends 
of the Government and the amendments should take part so that the 
amendments will finally receive the approval of the requisite number of 
States, and become part of the Constitution. 

Let them rail on about their rights, these "last ditch" gentlemen, and 
proclaim what they will or will not do. They have tried the wager of bat- 
tle, been vanquished in the field, and now they must submit to the will 
of the conqueror, and whether they will adopt the amendment or not will 
not retard the great work before us. Other men will answer the demands 
of the nation; other State organizations will sanction the amendments; and 
if these malcontents hatch up a new rebellion, the problem of reconstruc- 
tion will be solved as to them finally and forever, for not one of them will be 
left unburied or unhung. 

But we are told that if we reject these State organizations the con- 
stitutional amendment abolishing slavery will fall to the ground. Well, 
if the Supreme Court, as it is very likely to do, should decide that those 
rebel machines were not States that claimed to adopt this amendment, and 
that the concurrence of three fourths of the thirty-six States is necessary 
to pass the amendment, then we vshould have it solemnly decided and set- 
tled that the great amendment was not adopted. Let us avoid any such 
contingency; let us make this amendment a part of the Constitution be- 
yond doubt by creating valid State organizations that will legally adopt it. 
The emancipation proclamation of Mr. Lincoln struck the shackles from the 
bondmen in all the seceding States. The amendment has been adopted 
by all the free States, and can be adopted by the requisite number as soon 
as the Southern States are properly reorganized. 

The leaders of the reliellion should never again return to power in 



116 HAMILTON WARD. 

this country. Our fathers disfranchised Tories, and so should we disfran- 
chise all those bold, bad men who fired the Southern heart, 
"AVho cheered the band and waved the sword, 
As leaders in a rebel horde." 

They should never again be clothed with trust in this Government. 
The prowling guerrilla, the wretch that starved prisoners to death, should 
likewise be deprived; and the editors and publishers of those vile secession 
sheets that fanned the flame of the rebellion, that studiously misrepresented 
the Union and its friends, deceived and beguiled the Southern masses into 
rebellion, and then prolonged it for years by the same means, and are still 
seeking to widen the breach and keep alive the spirit of insubordination 
in the hearts of their victims; none of these restless, dangerous men should 
ever again cast a vote or hold an office under this Government. 

A few of the more prominent of these leaders should be tried for trea< 
son, and if convicted hung for treason. Let the remainder of them live and 
have an abiding place even under the flag they dishonored and sought to 
tear down; but let them go, disfranchised, shorn of all political power, with 
the mark of the traitor upon them, until they shall perish from the earth, 
and let their names and memory go down to all coming time as infamous, 
and as a warning; thus "treason will be made odious." 

I am opposed to general amnesty. For all time to come ambitiou.s 
and unscrupulous men should be admonished by the fate of the moving 
spirits of the great rebellion that such acts are attended with danger; that 
life and property may be lost in such an attempt; that treason is not a 
pastime or an adventure, to be undertaken without risk to lift those en- 
gaged in it to power and honor if successful and to be attended with no 
evil consequences if unsuccessful, but that the nation while magnanimous 
is just, and justice will punish with severity a suflScient number to be a les- 
son to all others in like case offending. The fact that we have neglected 
that duty so long makes no difference. The traitor cannot complain of the 
delay in his own favor. Every consideration of duty, justice, honor, and 
public safety demands this. The Avarnings of the past, the terrible realities 
of the present, and the hopes of the future all require it. I have hope 
for the nation, for I believe it will be just. My dream is of a model Re- 
public, extending equal protection and rights to all men from ocean to 
ocean, from the great lakes to the Gulf, that a mighty people shall rise up 
strong in freedom, in knowledge, and in power. 

The South shall cease to be a section and become a part of the 
nation; her sons and daughters shall build altars to freedom in her waste 
places; the wilderness shall vanish, the church and school-house will ap- 
pear, and light and knowledge will illumine her dark corners; freedom of 
speech, of opinion, and of the press will be as much secured in South Caro- 



M.VKYLAXD ELECTIONS. 117 

lina as in Maine; all men shall he citizens, and high and clear in the fun- 
damental law will that charter of citizenship be found guiJiug the nation 
like a pillar of flame; the whole land will revive under the magic touch of 
free labor, and we shall arise from the ashes of the rebellion to a purer life 
and a higher destiny, illustrating the grand truth of man's capacity for 
self-government; then Columbia will march on through the ages that are 
to come, her navies triumphant on every sea, her commerce encircling the 
earth, her arms the terror of tyrants and the hope of slaves, her influence 
ascendant in every capital; the oppressed of all nations will come lo our 
shores, and free governments everywhere be founded from the inspiration 
of our example; firm upon the rock of justice and equality the temple reared 
by our fathers and purified by the blood of our brothers shall stand in the 
midst of the wondering nations, the most potent, free and glorious of all. 
.Shall this be so? It is ours to say. 

This speech practically outlining what was then the 
policy of the radical wing- of the party, attracted much favor- 
able attention all over the Union, as is indicated by the press 
of that day. 

On the 2 1 St of January, 1867, I\Ir. \^'ard presented the 
following preamble and resolution in the house : 

Whereas, By the constitution and laws of the State of Maryland 
persons who were disloyal to the Government of the United States, or 
gave aid and encouragement to the recent rebellion are deprived of tho 
elective franchise: and whereas it is alle;re(l that at the last election in the 
State of Maryland large numbers of persons disqualified as aforesaid did 
vote for Representative in the Fortieth Congress and other officers; and 
whereas it is further alleged that armed forces of the United States were 
ordered by the Federal authorities to, and did co-operate with the execu- 
tive of the State of Maryland and others who were engaged with him in 
overriding the constitution and laws aforesaid, and in securing the votes 
of rebels and persons disqualified as aforesaid, and whereby loyal and 
qualified voters of Maryland were deterred from the free exercise of the 
elective franchise and from resisting and preventing the violation of the 
constitution and laws aforesaid: Therefore, 

Resolved, That the Committee of Elections shall inquire into and 
report whether the constitution and laws have been violated as aforesaid, 
and whether the President or any one under his command has in any 
manner interferred with the said election, or has in any way used or 
threatened to use the military power of the nation with reference to the 
v-tid election, and if so, whether it was upon the requisition of the Gov- 



lis HAMILTON WARD. 

ernor of Maryland; and the committee shall have power to send for per- 
sons and papers. 

The preaml^le and resolution were agreed to. 

Congressman Phelps from the 3rd District of Mary- 
land, charged that no one desired the requested investiga- 
tion except defeated candidates, which charge the Mayor 
and City Council of the City of Baltimore refuted by the 
following resolution : 

"WHEREAS it appears from the debates in Congress regarding the 
resolution of inquiry into the recent Maryland elections, that the Hon. 
Charles E. Phelps, Representative from the Third District, took upon 
himself to assert that the proposed inquiry was not in accordance with 
the wishes of any great number of the Union men of Maryland. 

BE IT RESOLVED by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 
that the Hon. Charles E. Phelps has no authority to speak for the Union 
men of Baltimore, as his political connections are such as to prevent him 
from either knowing or representing their wishes. 

RESOLVED that the thanks of the loyal people of Baltimore be 
and they are hereby extended to the Hon. Hamilton Ward, for pressing 
his resolution of inquiry to a passage, and to the House of Representa- 
tives for the interest manifested in their affairs by its adoption. 

RESOLVED, That the exigencies of the times demand that the late 
rebellionists and present revolutionists of Maryland, who have acquired 
power through the treachery of Governor Swann, under the encourage- 
ment of President Johnson, should be prevented by the United States 
from consummating their revolutionary projects, which are fraught with 
danger to the State and to the country, x x x x 

RESOLVED, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the 
Hon. Hamilton Ward, and the Hon. Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives at Washington, and also to the Hong. J. A. Cresswell, John L. 
Thomas, Jr., and Francis Thomas. 

On this subject the Commonwealth of Boston, Mass., 
says on February 2nd, 1867: 

Mr. Congressman W^ard's investigation into the secret operation* 
of the Swann-Johnsou conspiracy of last fall in Baltimore has struck 
terror into the ranks of the conspirators. The criminal intervention of 
A. J. in Maryland matters will be unearthed. The whole plot contrived 
by Swann, and backed up by the President, to deliver the State over into 



IN CON(}KESS 18f!7. 119 

vobol hands, will bo exposed. The President's unexecuted order for active 
military interposition, in behalf of Swann's raid on the late police com- 
missioners, will be found to be a fixed fact. His conduct iu that whole 
contest will be shown to be a high crime and misdemeanor against the 
liberties of the people of Maryland. The City Councils of Baltimore have 
voted the thanks of their loyal fellow-citizens to Mr. Ward for moving this 
investigation. 

On the 26th day of February, 1867, Mr. Ward deliv- 
ered a speech on the tariff in which he urged a high tariff 
on American manufactures and farm products, and espe- 
cially on wool, the growth of which, he says, forms one of 
the principal industries of his district and which suffers from 
South American competition. 

In this session, as in the preceding one, his voice was 
constantly raised against appropriation bills, insisting al- 
ways on a careful examination by the Appropriate Com- 
mittee, but as before his hand and heart were always open 
to the Union soldiers. 

His personal reputation at home grew amazingly at 
this period and the district ever since the Elmira speech 
had begun to take considerable pride in its representative. 

An editorial couched in old time newspaper style in 
the Angelica Reporter of May ist, 1867, illustrates this: 

NOBLE AMBITION. 

It ha.s been written that the pursuits of ambition are successions of 
jealous disquietudes of corroding fears, of high hopes, of restless desires 
and of bitter disappointment. Undoubtedly there are many painful re- 
tleetions and mortifying defeats attending him \vho lives for the applause 
and favor of men, and who would secure "fame and position." Caesar 
himself said that he "'had enough of fame." Indeed most men are more 
inclined to bestow censure than applause, and it's a dangerous experiment 
to "run the gauntlet" of the "envy and hatred" of nianTilnd with the hope 
of eventually winning their good opinion and being rewarded with their 
honorable preference for distinction. And yet, to seek meritoriously th« 
"praise of men;" to aim to occupy positions of great honor and trust at 
the hands of the people is a noble ambition, worthy of anxious toil and 
persisting effort. There is no stream so sweet as that which flows from 
the fountain of human applause. The public enunciation "well done," 



120 HAMILTON WARD. 

thou hast been wise and faithful, awakens the warmest emotions of grati- 
tude and pride in the noblest minds on earth; it is the highest reward to 
be won or bestowed. 

We have but little knowledge of the early life of Hon. Hamilton 
Ward, but we are assured that he gave timely attention to the improve- 
ment and development of his natural abilities for usefulness as a public 
man. 

In due time he turned his attention to "the law," and soon after he 
was admitted he came to this county, cast his fortunes with the favored, 
yet then undeveloped town of Philipsburgh, since Belmont. 

Young and inexperienced, but studious and industrious, with a 
limite<l library for "a companion and admirer," a cheerful, confident and 
persevering spirit, he opened an ofBoe, "stuck out his shingle," and began 
to court business and make friends, and initiated that warfare which to 
some brings enemies and to others "mere bread." 

In those days the Allegany bar boasted many learned and several 
"grave counselors;" a number have been elevated to "the bench," others 
have sought "new fields," a few have gone to that "better land," while 
several yet remain to expound the law and enlarge the facts to "the court 
and jury," for a reasonable fee, content with an honorable home, their 
nsual professional reunions, a "pent up" fame and prospective "treasure* 
in Heaven." 

Angelica was then the "seat of law," and Mr. W^ard was soon called 
upon to d'cfend an "innocent client" summoned to appear at that point, 
on which occasion he happened to be present. It was in^ an old ofBce which 
decay or enterprise has long since removed. 

Mr. Ward met as the "opposing counsel" the members of a then noted 
firm. Finding himself in the "enemy's camp," with the "old law-giver" at 
hand, he took an observation and called for a jury. 

In the trial, Mr, Ward was more than a match for the spindling, 
piping attorney who was managing the plaintiff's case, and frequently 
"gained ground." This called the attention and interference of the "ragged 
lawyer" who lay "stretched out" on a law-bench in the rear (now 'dig- 
nified and erect,' presides as Sup. Court Judge), who eventually took 
charge of the prosecution, "swelled" Mr. Ward out of the case, and with 
much haranging in darkm>ss and smoke, suffocated the jury into giving 
an unjust verdict for the plaintiff, as we mutually consoled and agreed. 
But in this, one of his "first efi'orts," Mr. Ward gave promise of success 
at the bar; for it evidently required the serious attention of the "senior 
counsel" to save his client from defeat. 

Without proceeding in detail, Mr. Ward within a few years was 
elected District Attorney of the county, and to say that he discharged the 



IN CONGRESS 1867. 121 

duties of that office with marked ability and great industry, is no more 
than the public accede to him. 

When the folly, wickedness and madness of men had almost sus- 
pended the civil powers of the general Government and introduced war 
devastation and almost anarchy in their place, and when we wantcvJ our 
best men in counsel, Mr. Ward was warmly supported by his friends and 
admirers as a candidate for a seat in the National Legislature. By their 
exertions, and through his own great personal popularity, he was nomin- 
ated and elected to Congress. Many doubted whether he had ripened 
sufficiently in intellect and experience to qualify him for the grave trusts 
and serious duties now imposed upon him: but he has in no way come 
short in his duties, and has gratified the highest expectations of his 
friends. 

It has been well said that it is the duty of the editor to sub-soil pub- 
.0 opinion to make it deep and porous, then sow it with the soundest seed; 
that the duty of the Legislature is not less plain, it is to put the highest 
opinion in.o the form of law; and this is the true test of his excellence as a 
statesman. .Judged by this test, Mr Ward has been eminently successful 
for the well considered opinions of a large majority of his constituents, aid- 
ed by his zealous efforts, have become the "Law of the Land " His am- 
bition has been indeed noble, and his success glorious. 

Mr. Ward believed the rebels should be punished, he 
said so, he never lorgave a Copperhead; he was fearless in 
manitaining his views. On the 13th day of July ,1867, he 
delivered a Republican speech in Alexandria, Va., in vvhich 
he said he believed the rebel leaders should be hung and he 
attributed the difference between New York and Virginia 
between the populous and cultivated banks of the Hudson 
and the desolate and poverty stricken shores of the Po- 
tomac and Tames, to the difference in industrial conditions 
between the t^vo sections, one free the other slave 

^ A^'i^^^T^ ^^% "' ^^^^>' P"^^"' Richmond, Va., he 
made a radical Republican speech to two thou.sand recently en- 
-ranchised negroes, and no doubt enjoyed the change a 
short period of time had brought to this historic building 
Before the speech he was told that he would be asassinatell 
f he attempted to proceed, which he did nevertheless, first 
stating to the audience the threat which had been made 
No violence was attempted. 



122 HAMILTON WAKD. 

In July Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts offered a 
resolution asking for the appointment of a select committee 
of five to consider the assassination of President Lincoln, 
with power to examine the witnesses, and grant amnesty 
in case it should be deemed wise by the committee. 

This resolution was agreed to and on the 9th day of 
July the speaker appointed the following committee : 
Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts, Samuel Shellabarger 
of Ohio, George W. Julian of Indiana, Hamilton Ward of 
New York and Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. The 
criminal courts satisfactorily disposed of the assassins and 
the committee took no action. 

The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was now openly 
discussed. He was regarded as a traitor to his party and 
by many to the State, and his unfortunate personal failings 
alienated from him many conservative men, who otherwise 
would have been loth to follow the Radical Republican 
majority. 

On Sept. 28, 1867, Schuyler Colfax, then speaker of the 
House, and later Vice-President, wrote Mr. Ward as fol- 
lows : 

My dear Friend: — 

On my return from ten days' speaking in Ohio I find your cordial 
and welrome letter. We have had bad luck this year — having in nearly 
every State side issues that weaken us and vrhich tend to intensify the 
bold, bad man at the head of affairs in Washington. But T have hope and 
faith that all will be right in the end. Perhaps these things will unite us 
better for next year. I go next to Wisconsin, where our friends write 
me that there is just apathy and general dissatisfaction. In the Northwest 
all our friends are for impeachment. A. J'.s course since Congress ad- 
journed and his removal of Stanton, Sheridan and Sickles have been "the 
last feather that broke the camel's back." 

Thanking you for your friendly personal allusions and with regards 
to Mrs. Ward, I am, 

Very truly yours, 

SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

On the assembling of the 40th Congress most of the 
active men of the preceding Congress were found to have 
been re-elected. Morrill of Vermont had been promoted 



COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS 18U7. 123 

to the Senate. John Morrissey, the prize-fighter, made his 
appearance from New York. Fernando Wood of New York 
was also a member of this Congress. Roscoe ConkHn, Hke 
Morrill, had been promoted to the Senate. John A. Logan 
had come from Illinois and Ignatius Donnelly from Minnesota. 

In the appointment of the committees which were 
on the Committee of Claims, John A. Bingham of Ohio 
being first and Wm. B. Washburn of Massachusetts being 
second. He was named as Chairman of the Committee on 
Revolutionary Claims. 

These two committees, together with the Committee 
on the Assassination of President Lincoln and to prepare 
articles of impeachment for President Johnson, spoken of 
later, constituted Mr. W'ard's committee service in the 40th 
Congress. 

On the convening of the 40th Congress in November, 
1867, the impeachment of the President became the perma- 
nent issue. 

On January nth, 1S68, Mr. Ward delivered the follow- 
ing speech in the House: 

IMPEACHMENT. 

Mr. WARD. Mr. Chairman, I will ask the indulgence of the com- 
mittee for a short time while I examine two or three questions about which 
I desire to express opinions and advance such reasons as govern my action 
with regard to them. 

And in the first place, sir, I wish to refer to the question of impeach- 
ment, and in doing so I am well aware that I shall encounter the im- 
patience of gentlemen who will exclaim, "Oh, impeachment is dead and 
buried; why revive it now':'" I am aware, sir, that so far as this House 
is concerned such is the case, but I was one of those who felt constrained 
to vote for the impeachment of the President and by the extraordinary 
manner in which the question was disposed of had no opportunity to state 
my reasons for so doing. 

And, sir, some of those who olHciated at the burial will not lot the 
matter rest, but with uneasy legal consciences keep exhuming the dead 
carcass and displaying it before th^ House. The learned gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Judge Woodward) feels obliged to protest agaiui^t the legal 



124 HAMILTON WAR]). 

conolnsions of those opposed to impeachnient and favors the conclusions 
adopted by the committee. My friend, also, from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Boyer) and the gentleman from Ohio on my left (Judge Van Trump) take 
issue wilh Judge Woodward on the law. From all this it is evident that 
this question "will not down" at the bidding of the chairman of the Ju- 
diciary, but, like Banquo's ghost, is constantly reappearing. I may there- 
fore be pardoned a few observations upon the subject. 

The majority of the House, under the able leadership of the chair- 
man of the Judiciary Committee, strangled debate upon this grave and 
momentous question, and, with the exception of obtaining the views of two 
distinguished gentlemen, nothing was allowed to be said in the House. But 
by a most arbitrary use of the "previous question" the report of the Ju- 
diciary Committee and the whole matter of impeachment were hurried to 
their graves with all the impatience of those who know that there is some- 
thing "rotten in Denmark," but that "dead men tell no tales." 

I was one of those who felt it a duty to avoid, by such dilatory mo- 
tions as were in the power of the minority, the vote on the motion to lay 
the report of the committee on the table until the majority would concede 
to us the privilege of discussing to a reasonable extent the question. 

Such motions are sometimes the only means the minority of a legis- 
lative body have to protect themselves and secure the freedom of debate 
on vital public questions, and this, in my humble opinion, was a pi-oper 
occasion for the exercise of that right. 

We did not succeed, however; the majority were fearful of discussion, 
and all we secured was a direct vote upon the question. In this connec- 
tion let me advert to the course of gentlemen on the Democratic side of the 
House. They have on all occasions in the Thirty-Ninth and the pi'esent 
Congress insisted, while they were in the minority on great political ques- 
tions, when those questions came to be considered, insisted upon the great- 
est latitude of debate, and complained bitterly of the "tyranny" of the ma- 
jority; but upon this occasion, when they were suddenly grown into the 
majority, not one of them is found in favor of the freedom of debate or the 
rights of the minority. 

It is said that the only bleniish that rests upon the memory of the 
Pilgrim P'athers is that they who had fled from the persecutions and op- 
pressions of the Old World to the wilderness of the New, to enjoy the 
priceless blessing of civil and religious liberty, became in time as intolerant 
as the oppressors from whom they fled, and burnt witches and banished 
Quakers. I commend this bit of history to the consideration of these hon- 
orable gentlemen. 



SrEK'CU U.\ IMrEACllMENT 1SG8. 125 

I carefully examined the evidenc-e taken by the various reports 
emanating from the Judiciary Committee on the subject of impeachment, 
and, sir, as one of the grand inquests of the nation, sought to examine 
the whole matter with a judicial mind uninfluenced by partisan feeliug or 
prejudice. At the same time, sir, I was not awed by tlie power and glit- 
ter of this great office. I did not bask in the smiles of Executive favor or 
meekly pick up the crumbs that fell from his official table; nor was I de- 
terred from doing my duty by the threats aud jeers of tiaitors, the sneers 
of conservatives, or the pr(>tended contempt of the opposition. I found, 
sir, that Andrew Johnson had, in violation of law, seized upon the gov- 
ernments of ten States of this Union, created Governors, Legislatures, 
judges for them; appointed to offices created by himself in those States 
men who had been in rebellion against our Government, whose hands were 
red with the blood of our people, and had paid those officers out of the 
people's money in violation of law. I found that he had overridden and 
defied the legislative branch of this Government and usurped with a high 
liand the prerogatives of Congress. 

When Congress resisted and denounced his usurpations, with deliber- 
ate and well formed purpose to continue his usurpations aud put traitors 
into power in this country, to the exclusion and oppression of loyal men, 
he prostituted the pardoning power, the veto power, and the power of ap- 
pointment to office — all great powers given him by the Coustitution for a 
wise and discreet use, for the public good, and not to be abused and made 
instrumental of fraud, usurpation, and oppression. I found him encouraging 
insubordination in the population that had been in rebelliou; insidiously 
inducing them to resist the law; lighting in New Orleans the flames of se- 
dition and murder; calmly witnessing the murder of thousands of Union 
men in the South who had fallen victims to his creatures and under the 
protection of his State governments. I found him surrendering to the 
enemy millions of public property in violation of law; restoring to traitors 
millions more than by law belonging to the Treasury, and could only be 
taken from thence by an appropriation by Congress pursuant to law; that 
he knowingly appointed a large number of officers who could not take the 
"iron-clad" oath of office to discharge the most delicate and responsible 
duty of collecting the public revenue, thus disregarding the law himself 
and encouraging others to do so; that he had sold on credit vast amounts 
of personal property belonging to the Government, in violation of law, to 
rebels, con.«;tituting Tennessee railroad corporations, taking no adequate 
security therefor, and when, by means of such property, said railroad cor- 
porations amassed a considerable sum of money, he postponed the pay- 
ment of the public demands upon said corporations in order to secure thp 



12G HAMILTON WxiilD. 

payment of obligations which he, the President, had against such corpora- 
tions, and which constituted doubtless the real reason of the original sale 
of the aforesaid personal property to them. 

I found that while it was his duty and sworn obligation "to see that 
the laws were faithfully executed," not one traitor had been brought to 
punishment for the crime that deluged our land in blood, clothed it in 
mourning, covered it with debt, and filled it with graves; but on the con- 
trary, traitors had been pardoned, and many of them clothed with offices 
of honor and trust, while the laws providing for confiscating their prop- 
erty had been deliberately and systematically violated by the Executive, 
and even property was restored to rebel owniers that had before been con- 
fiscated by law and belonged to the Treasury of the United States. In 
short, I found that he had betrayed and violated in many ways his high 
trust, and I voted with a clear sense of the magnitude of the occasion and 
the responsibility under which 1 rested as a Representative of the people 
for the impeachment of this high offender. 

The minority report, presented by the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, admits as true in effect the most of these charges, but seeks 
to escape from their effect by assuming that none of these are legally im- 
peachable offenses. But let us examine briefly the legal question: 

•'The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United 
States shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of 
treason, bribery, or other crimes and misdemeanors." — Constitution, Art. 
2. Sec. 4. 

What are the impeachable offenses within the meaning of the Con- 
stitution? "Treason and bribery" clearly are, being made so by the Con- 
stitution itself. The difficulty arises in determining what other offenses 
are impeachable. The language employed is "other high crimes and misde- 
meanors;" very broad terms, indeed, and sufficiently so to cover every con- 
ceivable criminal offense above the grade of simple misdemeanor. 

It is not necessary to discuss whether a civil officer, if you please 
the President, can be impeached for crimes not committed by color of his 
office or within the scope of his official acts, but w'holly disconnected there- 
from; such as larceny of the property of private individuals, arson, bur- 
glary, or the like; but we will consider what acts done or omitted within 
the range of official duties and as public officer will come within the defin- 
ition of "high crimes or misdemeanors." 

In determining this questiou reference must be had to the character 
of the official trust imposed and the consequences of a failure to execute 
that trust. 



SPEECH ON IMl'EACiniENT ISdM. 127 

Tho executive oflice is one of the branches of tiie Government; it is 
created to execute the law, not to mal<e it, and to act within its constitu- 
tional sphere in harmony with the legislative and judicial branches of the 
Government. The President has a double obligation resting upon him; 
he must do what the Constitution commands him to perform, and refrain 
from doing what it enjoins upon either of the other branches. A failure 
on his part to discharge either of these obligations must produce the most 
serious and far-reaoliing consetjuences to the whole country and endanger 
its very existence. The President is elected for four years and cannot be 
deprived of his office except by impeachment, and unless that can occur, 
in the cases supposed, a bad, ambitious, or unscrupulous Chief Magistrate 
would have it in his power to destroy the Republic. 

I submit that the President is impeachable for any such misconduct in 
office as amounts to a serious breach of his ofiicial trust, any important 
violation or neglect of duty enjoined upon him as the President of the 
United States, and that such violation of duty and misconduct are high 
crimes and misdemeanors within the meaning of the Constitution, and that 
in this enlarged and liberal sense the words were used by the framers of 
the Constitution, as I shall proceed most conclusively to show. I glean 
from the debates in the great convention that framwl this immortal in- 
strument the following: Colonel Mason, upon whose motion the words 
"high crimes and misdemeanors" were inserted after the words treason 
and bribery, said: 

*'Xo point is more iinpo.ilant than that the right of impeachment 
should be continued. Shall any man be above justice, and above all. shall 
that man who can commit the most extensive injustice?" 

Dr. Franklin said: 

"It would be the best way to provide in the Constitution for the 
regular punishment of the Executive when his misconduct should deserve 
it." 

James Madison said that he — 

"Thought it indispensable that some provision should be made for 
defending the community against the incapacity, negligence, or perfidy of 
the Chief Magistrate. He might loose his capacity after his appointment. 
He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppres- 
sion. He might betray his trust to foreign powers." 

Mr. ELDRIDGE. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a ques- 
tion? 



128 HAMILTON WARD. 

Mr. WARD. Certainly. 

Mr. ELDRIDGE. Does the gentleman claim that incapacity in a 
civil officer is a sufficient cause for his impeachment under the provision 
of the Constitution he is considering? 

Mr. WARD. I am not stating any opinion of my own on that sub- 
ject. I am only giving Mr. Madison's statement. He seems to think an 
oflRcer should be impeached if he became incapacitated to discharge his 
official duties. 

Mr. HIGBY. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a question? 

Mr. WARD. Yes, sir. 

Mr. HIGBY". Does the gentleman think intemperance in a public 
officer a sufficient cause for impeachment? 

Mr. WARD. I regard intemperance in a public officer as a grave 
offense against good government and morals; and gross intemperance, such 
as unfits him to discharge his official duties, as a sufficient ground of im- 
peachment. 

Mr. HIGBY. So do I. 

Mr. WARD. But to resume, Mr. Chairman: Edmund Randolph 
said that— 

"Guilt, wherever found, ought to be punished. The Executive will 
have great opportunities of abusing his power, particularly in time of war, 
when the military force, and to some extent the public money, will be in 
his hands." 

Madison papers, vol. 2, pages 1154, 1155, 115G, 1157, and 1158. 

In the debate upon the ratification of the Federal Constitution in the 
North Carolina convention Mr. Spaight, who was also a member of the 
Federal Convention, in commenting upon the provision we are considering. 



"That the President was impeachable if he in any manner abused 
his trust."— Elliott Debates in Convention, 1787, vol. o. 108. 

Mr. Indell, a prominent member of the North Carolina convention, 
on the same occasion said: 

"The power of impeachment is given by this Constitution to bring 
great offenders to punishment; it is calculated to bring them to punishment 
for crimes that are not easy to define, but which every one must be con- 
vinced is a high crime and misdemeanor against the Goverment." — Ibid., 
107. 

Governor Johnson, a leading member, on the same occasion, said: 



SPEECH ON IMPEACHMENT 1SG8. 129 

"If an oflQcer commits an offense against an individual he is amenable 
to the courts of law. If he commits a crime a^^ainst the State he may be 
indicted and punished. Impeachment only extends to high crimes and 
misdemeanors in a public ofHcer; it is a mode pointed out for great misde- 
mearors against the public." 

The honored name of Alexander Hamilton, who was also a menaber 
of the Federal Convention, adds its weight to these positions. He de- 
clares in No. 95 of the Federalist that — 

"The subjects of the jurisdiction of a court of impeachment are those 
offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other 
words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a 
nature which may, with peculiar propriety, be denominated political, as 
they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself." 

Turning to the sages of the law who wrote in the early time, we find 
the declared object of the fathers of the Constitution crystalized into law 
in the text books. Judge Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution, 
lays down the law thus: 

"The oflices to which the power of impeachment has been and is or- 
dinarily applied as a remedy are of a political character. Not but that the 
crimes of a strictly legal character fall within the scope of the power, but 
that it has a more enlarged operation, and reaches what are aptly termed 
political offenses growing out of personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or 
usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests in the discharge 
of the duties of political office. These are so various in their character 
and so indefinable in their actual involutions that it is almost impossible 
to provide for them by positive law. They must be examined on very 
broad and comprehensive principles of policy and duty." — Vol. 2, sec. 764. 

Judge Story again says that — 

"The Congress of the United States has itself unhesitatingly adopted 
the conclusion that no previous statute is necessary to authorize an impeach- 
ment for any official misconduct, and the rules of proceeding and the rules 
of evidence, as well as the principle of decision; have been uniformly reg- 
ulated by the known doctrine of the common law and parliamentary 
usage." 

And in accordance with this is the language of Mr. Kawlo. in his 
Treatise on the Constitution, page 19. He remarks: 

"Its foundation is that a subject intrusted with the administration 
of public affairs may sometimes infringe the rights of the people, and be 



130 HAMILTON WARD. 

guilty of such crimes as the ordinary magistrate either dare not or cannot 
punish." "The delegation of impoilant trusts affecting the higher interests 
of society is always, from various causes, liable to abuse. The fondness 
frequently felt for the individual extension of power; the influence of party 
prejudice; the seductions of foreign States, or the baser appetite for il- 
legitimate emolument, are sometimes productive of what are not inaptly 
termed political offenses, which it would be difficult to take cognizance of 
in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings." Besides, "the involutions 
and varieties of vice are too many and too artful to be anticipated by posi- 
tive law, and sometimes too subtle and mysterious to be fully detected in 
the limited period of ordinary investigation." 

And again, page 204: 

"The legitiuiare cansos of impeachment can only have reference to 
public characters and official duty." 

But the chairman of the Judiciary Committee contends that as a mat- 
ter of law the President can only be impeached for such offenses as have 
been declared "high crimes and misdemeanors" by an act of Congress, ig- 
noring the common law which is our birthright and the foundation' of our 
whole national jurisprudence. His views are in deadly conflict with the 
law as quoted above, the designs of the fathers, the objects of the Consti- 
tution, the teachings of contemporaneous history, and the precedents al- 
ready established by the Senate of the United States, from whose final 
decision there is no appeal. The Senate has tried several persons who 
have been impeached and convicted — one, at least, who was not charged 
with any offense known to the statutes of the Union. 

To establish further the fallacy of the position that tlie President 
is not inpeachable except for treason or bribery or some crime or misde- 
meanor that is made such by act of Congress, I will again advert to the 
words of the fathers of the Constitution. 

In the Virginia convention 1788 (see Elliott's State Conventions, vol- 
ume two. Virginia, page 358) Edmund Randolph, in commenting upon the 
clause in the Constitution prohibiting officers from accepting any "present 
or emolument" from any "king, prince or foreign State," said that if the 
President received any such emolument "he may be impeached." It was 
not put upon the ground of bribery, for the President may or may not be 
guilty of bribery in accepting such "emolument," but it was upon the dis- 
tinct ground that the President would be impeachable if he violated this 
provision itself. 

In the same convention (see page 367, same book) Mr. Mason objected 
to the President having the pardoning power, and said: 



SPEECH ON IMPEACHMENT 1868. 131 

"Now I conceive that the President ought not to have the pardoning 
power, because he may frequently pardon crimes that were advised by 
himself." 

James Madison, in reply, said: 

"There is one security in this case to which the gentleman may not 
have adverted; if the Pn-sident be connected in any suspicious manner 
with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter himself, 
the House of Representatives can impeach him." 

Agjiin, in the same convention, (ibid., page 368,) Mr. Mason objected 
to the mode of making treaties, namely, by the President, and concurred 
in by two thirds of the Senators present. He said: 

"Suppose a partial treaty is made by the President and is to be rati- 
fied by the Senate, they do not always sit who is to convene them; the 
President, it is presumable that he will call distant States to make th« rati- 
fication, or those States he knew would be injured by tlie treaty he had 
proposed?" 

Mr. Madison — 

"thought it astoni.shing that gentlemen should think that a treaty could 
be got with surprise, or that foreign nations should be solicitous to get a 
treaty only ratified by the Senators of a few States. 

"Were the President to commit anything so atrocious as to summon 
only a few States he would be impeached and convicted, as a majority 
of the States would be affected by his misdemeanor." 

Here you have a case which is not a crime or misdemeanor by an 
act of Congress, and you also ascertain the great expounder's idea of what 
the word "misdemeanor" meant as used in the Constitution. It clearly 
means any grave Vireach of official trust, such as the one here referred to, 
or the ones prt viously cited of iniproi)erly using the pardoning power and 
receiving emoluments from foreign nations. 

These definitions of impeachable offenses by Randolph and Madison 
passed unchallenged in the ablest State convention ever held in this coun- 
try, where Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and George Mason, on the one 
hand, opposed the adoption by Virginia of the Federal Constitution, and 
.Tames Madison. Edmund Randolph. Edmund Pendelton, and .John Mar- 
shall, on the other hand, favored its adoption; and when every provision 
of the great instrument was subject to the sharpest criticism and most 
elaborate discussion. 



132 HAMILTON WARD. 

Will the chairman of the Judiciary Committee tell me under what law 
of Congress the three offenses above referred to are made crimes or mis- 
demeanors or impeachable offenses, and, if under none, will he now say 
that Edmund Ranflolph and James Madison were mistaken when they 
called these acts impeachable; that they did not understand the Constitu- 
tion; but that it was reserved for the minority of this committee, in the 
year of grace 1867, to construe the Constitution for them and set them 
right? 

Sir the President must do his duty under his oath, execute the law, 
do all for and nothing against the public weal, and above all he must 
confine himself to his own duties, and not lay a ruthless hand upon the 
prerogatives of any other branch of the Government, for that is usurpation, 
and, says the President himself, in his recent message: 

"If the authority we desire to use does not come to us through the 
Constitution we can exercise it only by usurpation; and usurpation is the 
most dangerous of political crimes. By that crime the enemies of free gov- 
ernment in all ages have worked out their designs against public liberty 
and private right. It leads directly and immediately to the establishment 
of absolute rule, for undelegated power is always unlimited and unre- 
strained." 

"Out of his own mouth will I condemn him." 

But, say, some gentlemen, suppose the law and the facts are as you 
contend — "is it after all expedient to impeach the President; he has but 
about a year to serve, and Congress is the master of the situation." 

Sir, I think it is always expedient to do right, to vindicate the law 
and punish public offenders. It is the pride and boast of our country that 
under our free institutions no man is so high as to be above justice, none 
so low as to be beneath it. Sir, I would punish the Commander-in-Chief 
for a violation of duty as soon, ay, sooner, than 1 would the poor sentinel 
that sleeps at his post or the homesick boy that deserts to visit his kindred. 

I would punish the great magistrate clothed with kingly power for a 
breach of his official duty as soon as I would the humblest magistrate in 
the land for a breach of his; the higher the criminal the more pernicious 
the example, the more disastrous the crime. 

I fear, sir, that Congress is not "master of the situation." I think 
to a great extent the President is; he seems to prevent to a great extent 
the execution of our laws. While he does not profess openly to oppose 
them, he encourages others to do so; he delays reconstruction, at least. A 
year is a long time in this burning crisis. The world moves rapidly now, 
and centuries of progi-ess seemed crowded into a single hour. If the Presi- 



SPEECH ON IMPEACHMENT 18G8. 133 

dont by indirect methods delnys recorstruction until the people, weary of 
the struggle, surrender to his "polity" and all is lost, you have only your- 
selves and your weak, timid, time-serving expediency to thank for it. 

He, under the fear of impeachment, first appointed good and true 
men to execute the reconstruction acts, but when that fear vanished he re- 
moves them from ofiice and appoints in their places the creatures of his 
will; he snubs Grant and removes th^ dauntless hero of Winchester, strikes 
off the epaulettes from the hobbling Sickles, and now Pope and Ord share 
their fate. 

In defiance of your "tenure-of -office"' bill ho removes from the War 
Department the peerless Stanton, who was so great and clear in hi? high 
oflice that when his calumniators and detractors of to-day are buried and 
forgotten his n.-inio will shine forth on the brightest page of history as the 
greatest war minister of any age or country. 

Sir, this is not a contest between this Congress and Andrew Johnson 
alone; the issue rises higher than the men and measures of the present 
time. It is the first time in our country's history that the President has 
attempted to usurp the pi-erogatives of Congress, and in the contest the 
President triumphs and Congress succumbs. 

Sir, this is, in my judgment, a most serious question; one that will 
go into history; and its influence will reach far down the tide of time to 
other men and other generations, when popular rights may again be in 
danger and through executive usurpation may be overthrown. 

When we consider the framework of our Covernment the most cau- 
tious and apprehensive cannot anticipate that Congress will ever be able 
to overthrow the liberties of the people. Congress is composed of too many 
persons, there is too much conflict of will and interest in two botlies con- 
taining in the aggregate several hundred men, representing, as they do, 
so many different views and interests. The unity of purpose and will 
essential to so great an undertaking as changing the form of our govern- 
ment will be wanting. No danger can be apprehended from the Supreme 
Court; but the Executive, represented by a single will, prompted by a 
single ambition, clothed with such vast power of patronage, which is con- 
stantly to increase as the country grows in wealth and population, oper- 
ating upon what is too often the case — a subservient Congress — may in 
time seize the prerogative of the other two branches of the Government, 
and thus, blending all in one, vesting supreme power in himself, having the 
command of the "Army and the Navy," crush out public liberty, and under 
the pretense of serving the nation rear a throne upon the ruins of his 
country. 

Then, indeed, will be realized the dismal prophecy of Patrick Heniy 
(when commenting upon the executive power given in the Constitution 



134 HAMILTON WARD. 

in the Virginia convention, from whose proceedings I have quoted) in one 
of his impassioned bursts of eloquence he exclaimed: 

"Away with your President; we shall have a king; the Army will 
salute him monarch." * * * 

* '"What, then, v\ill become of you and your rights? Will not absolute 
despotism exist?" 

If, sir, in the time to come, perhaps in the far off future, some popu- 
lar, daring, and unscrupulous man, in seme time of public commotion, shall 
hll the presidential office, and he shall betray his trust, usurp the power of 
♦Congress, seize upon the public property, and bestow it upon his favorites, 
consort with traitors, postpone the payment of public debts to collect his 
own. and the people murmur and Congress protests, who shall stay him? 
The record is made up here and now. The precedent is established. An- 
drew Johnson did all this, and was sustained by the Fortieth Congress. 
Then the rule was established that the President was supreme; that he 
"bt.strode the narrow world like a Colossus," and that Congress like — 

"Petty men 
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 
To find themselves dishonorable graves." 

Oh I he will exclaim in triumph, I am in for three or four years; you 
cannot impeach me without I commit treason or bribery or violate some 
criminal law of Congress. The Fortieth Congress has decided all that. I 
will be careful to keep within the rule they have laid down for me. And 
so encouraged may he not grow stronger in his bad purposes, and insidi- 
ously but surely accomplish them? So much for your expediency. Sir, 
if such a time shall ever come, and God forbid, it cannot be said that not 
one feeble voice was raised, even here and now, to protest against this 
precedent, and to warn his countrymen of the dangers that may flow 
from it. 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

Mr. Chairman, I have dwelt much longer upon this subject than I 
inter.ded; let me turn to another. Sir, the President has delivered to us his 
annual message, in which he repeats the stale charge of unconstitution- 
ality against the Congressional plan of reconstruction. He affirms, in less 
objectior.able form, all the singular and revolutionary doctrines that he 
proclaimed in his memorable "swing around the circle." He holds out the 
direct intimation that the laws of Congress ought to be disregarded. He 
vouches for the loyalty and good faith of the men who have been in rebel- 



SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 1868. 1:^5 

lion against the Governme-nt, and seeks to arouse the bitterness of race 
and class against the majority of those who ui the South were faitliiul 
to th.) Union throuj^h the rebellion. He expresses a fear that four million 
colored me.i will take possession of this Government in spite of all that 
thirty million white people can do, and that seven million white people 
in the South, nearly twice the number of the blacks, will be completely 
swallowed up and appropriated by these voracious negroes. He says, in 
effect, that two hundred thousand colored soldiers who fought for the flag, 
and all the others who were faithful to the nation in the dark hour of its 
anguish and peril, should be deprived of political rights and put under foot, 
while white rebel soldiers who fought against us or stood on guard at An- 
dersoLville or Libby, where thousands of our heroes starved to death, 
should vote and be restored to power in this government. Sir, these views 
of the I'resident find a ready response in the breast of every traitor. Cop- 
perhead and deserter in the land. They find sympathy in the breast of 
him whr^ now or recently has been starring through the country (I believe 
in "male attire") the observed of all observers and the special idol of the 
"eouthern heart — "Mr. Jefferson Davis himself. 

Now, sir, there are two plans of reconstruction; one proposed by 
Congress: and the other by the President and the Democratic party. The 
congressional plan places the ballot in the hands of all the male citizens of 
the South of a certain age except a very few disqualified for the promi- 
nence and peculiar baseness of their treason. It, in fact, gives the ballot 
and the power of governing in those States when reconstructed to the 
masses of the loyal and disloyal alike, and to the great majority of thi- 
people of each State. 

The other plan gives suffrage, and consequently power, in those States 
to the disloyal alone, to the exclusion of the majority of the loyal citizens, 
and vests in several other of these States the governing power in the minor- 
ity of the whole people to the exclusion of the majority, and in the States 
in which the majority are not excluded a very large minority of the people. 
n(orly one half, are. Is this Democracy? Is this a republican form of 
government where the minority rule? Sir, that is oligarchy; it Is aristoc- 
racy. 

A republic is defined by Worcester to be "'that form of government 
or of a State in which supreme power is vested in the people or the repre- 
sentatives elected by the people: a Commonwealth: a democracy;" not the 
minority of a people, not three-fifths of the people, not a part of the people, 
hut "the people" have the "supreme power." Again, he defines democ- 
racy, to be a "form of government in which the sovereign power is lodged 
in the body of the people;" the definition of the word from the Greek con- 



136 HAMILTON WARD. 

reys the full meaning, "the people to rule." In short, the President's 
plan contemplates the restoration to power in those States, by a grant to 
them of exclusive privileges, the old aristocracy who revolted and betrayed 
and brought all the miseries of war upoi; us. 

His Excellency is loud in his complaint about depriving these rebel- 
lious minorities of what he is pleased to call their constitutional rights, 
but he has no pleading word for the constitutional rights of the loyal and 
faithful majorities. The Presidential plan cares simply for a part of the 
southern people; the congressional plan comprehends and protects them 
all. 

As I have before said, it is asserted by the President that the congres- 
sional plan is unconstitutional — that it is unconstitutional to deprive trai- 
tors temporarily of the control of these States, to deprive them of the 
benefits of habeas corpus and of representation in Congress. But he 
would have you believe that it was perfectly constitutional for him to 
interfere as he has in southern affairs, to make State governments, to pre- 
scribe the qualification of voters and the terms upon which they should 
resume their representation in Congress; but Congress can do nothing of the 
kind, though clothed with the supreme legislative power of this Govern- 
ment. I would be pleased to have some defender of his "Excellency" show 
where he got the power that he has exercised in his plan of restoration. 

But, sir, the Congress gets full authority for its actiou from the Con- 
stitution itself. I utterly repudiate the idea that Congress has gone out- 
side of this great charter in this work, or that it is necessary to do so. 
No man can read the tremendous grant of power to Congress contained in 
the eighth section of the first article without finding, in conjunction with 
section four of article five, all the needed authority: 

"The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a 
republican form of government." * * * * "Congress shall have power 
to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United 
States." * * * *"To declare war." * * * * "Tq raise and support 
armies." * * * * "To provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
the laws of the Union and to suppress insurrection." * * * * "To 
make all laws which shall be necessary or proper for carrying into execu- 
tion the foregoing powers." 

And by the first section, also, all legislative powers granted by the 
Constitution were vested in Congress. And, again, by section nine of the 
same article the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended "where in cases 
of rebellion or invasion the public safety requires it." 

No impartial mind can examine carefully this great instrument and 
the declarations of its immortal founders as found in the published de- 



i 



SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 18«J8. 1:57 

bates in the Federal Convention and in the various State Conventions that 
originally adopted the Constitution and not find that the fathers intended 
to confer and did confer upon Congress all the power necessary to save 
the Republic when its existence is threaten(>d by enemies from without or 
traitors withini. 

Mr. Chairman, we must look to the substance of things and not to 
their forms; the Constitution was formed to preserve the nation, not to 
destroy it; he who raises a parricidal hand to strike down the Constitu- 
tion of his country cannot invoke its protection for that very act. The 
rebellion does not cease with the surrender of the rebel arms; it never 
ceases until the rebels become good citizens, return to their allegiance in 
good faith, and accord to all loyal men in their midst their constitutional 
rights. The jurisdiction of Congress over the subject matter once obtained 
by the rebellion and the consequent destruction of civil government im the 
States does not cease until such punishment is meted out to them and such 
guarantees secured from them as the national safety require, or as Con- 
gress, representing the supreme will of the nation, shall demand. 

But, says the President, a portion of the southern people are black, 
and they (for such is the substance of the argument) "have no rights that 
white men are bound to respect." They are ignorant, he says; he thinks 
they ought to be set off in some country by themselves. In the name of all 
that is good what kind of a "INIoses" is this? Gentlemen of the opposition 
take up the subject approving the President's sage views, appealing to the 
lowest prejudices of our nature to induce us to deny to the loyal people 
of the South their political rights. One gentleman, my distinguished col- 
league from New York City, (Mr. Brooks), in a speech in this House a 
few days since, entered into a minute description of the black man. He 
told us of the curls in his hair: of the thickness of his lips; of the size of 
his nose; of the shape of his jaw; and the honorable gentleman got down 
into the dirt and measured the length of his heel. He makes no objection 
on the ground of color, for ho says there are many colors in the world and 
no distinction should be made on that account; but the distinction seems to 
be one of heels, sir — heels. He carried us across the waters, and in splen- 
did flights of oratory he stood with a black man in a Turkish harem, he 
glided over Moslem and Arab history, and recalled with vivid portraiture 
the glories of old Spain. He showed us the evil effects of amalgama- 
tion upon the Arab and the Spaniard and other people. Here 
the gentleman overleaped himself and gave a most ungracious 
thrust at those rebel autocrats whose cause he has been so 
obsequiously serving with voice and pen these many years, for the only 
amalgamationists in this country are these same individuals whose cause 
he is pleading, and in whom he would repose unchecked and exclusive 
power in the South— the same men who owned women and sold their off- 



138 HAMILTON WAKL). 

spring on the auction block for gold. Sir, I concede all the gentleman 
claims of the evil effects of amalgamation, and we are seeking by our policy 
of reconstruction to give these blacks citizenship, suffrage, and freedom, 
so that they can own themselves and protect themselves from this horrible 
system which slavery alone engenders. And the honorable gentleman saw 
at length the drift of his argument, and how severely it bore upon his 
southern friends, for when he came to speak of mulattoes his yearning 
tenderness for the blood of the "first families" overcomes him and he 
hastens to make reparation, and he says he would "admit the mulatto 
to the right of suffrage," "but for violating a law of God," for he says 
he recognizes "our white blood flowing in his veins, and I know that he is 
often the equal and sometinu^ the superior of some white men." 

But the honorable gentleman is not entitled to a copyright for the 
invention of his ethnographical argument; it is as old as fraud and slavery 
themselves. It was proclaimed two years ago in the other end of this Cap- 
itol by Senator Davis, of Kentucky, and i-eproduced a few months ago by 
the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Mungeu). I am astonished that the gen- 
tleman, in his labored effort, omitted the other part of the old harangue, 
and that is that "Noah cursed Ham and doomed his children to bondage, 
and therefore slavery is supported by the Bible and is a divine institu- 
tion," 

With all due respect to the honorable gentleman, I pronounce his argu- 
ment trifling — trifling with a great question, with human beings and rights. 
If the gentleman claims that the negro is a brute I can understand his 
argument. But, sir, if the negro is a man with an immortal soul, with 
heai't, brains, and sympathies Hke other men, a native-born American citi- 
zen, who is to pay taxes, fight in our armies and navies, work in all the 
varied fields of labor, help develop the prostrate South, help pay our na- 
tional debt, live under and obey the laws which are to govern him and us, 
then, sir, I pronounce the message of his "Excellency" and the arguments 
of the opposition in relation to this matter as unworthy of tho subject and 
the occasion, and deserving little less than contempt. What! shall we meas- 
ure a man's rights in this free country by the kinks in his hair and the 
length of his heel? Sir, if we do so we had better appoint my honorable 
colleague a committee to at once adjust a scale of rights on that basis, 
and give us the kind of hair or heel that will admit a man to the privi- 
leges of the ballot-box. (Laughter). 

But, say gentlemen, with apparent triumph, if yon force negro suf- 
frage on the South why do you not secure it at the North? Sir, I am in 
favor of suffrage to all loyal native-born and naturalized citizens every- 
where under our flag, and so are fotr-fifths of the Union party. We have 



SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 1808. 130 

boen trying to secure this in Ohio, Kansas, and Minnesota lately, and all 
the gentleman's party and a few Republicans in those States who bav» 
prejudices upon the subject voted against and defeated it. The responsi- 
bility of that defeat is with the Democratic party, not with us. 

Again, in the northern States nearly all the citizens exercise the elec- 
tive franchise, whereas in several of the southern States if you exclude 
the black man the majority of the people will be excluded from a voice 
in the government, and the minority, as I have before said, will rule. And, 
sir, independent of the question of suffrage in the States that have not 
been in rebellion and have not given Congress a right by their treason, to 
interfere in their State and local affairs, we have the right, and it is our 
duty as a necessary measure of public safety and the protection of the 
loyal people of the South, to insist upon impartial suffrage in those States 
now being reconstructed; so that the question of suffrage in New York 
and Pennsylvania does not hinge upon the same reasons that it does in the 
rebel States. In the one case the public safety does not absolutely require 
impartial suffrage; in the other it does. 

But, sir, I hope the time is not far distant when the people of the 
loyal States will accord to all men equal rights at the ballot-box. Do gen- 
tlemen suppose that five hundred thousand citizens in this country that are 
loyal to the Government, subject to all the burdens of other citizens, can be 
deprives! for any considerable time of all voice in the laws that govern 
them and the Government they help to support? Oh, no! This is the wild- 
est dream of political infatuation. Sir, they are voting now. They have 
tasted this sweet privilege, they have shed their blood as a ransom for 
this right; and when Abraham Lincoln struck the shackles from their 
limbs and Congi-ess gave them the ballot they received a boon that they will 
not surrender as long as the nation sball stand; and woe to that man or 
that party that seeks to strip those rights from them. The attempt will 
fail. And now be wise in time; take no encouragement from the recent 
elections. They meant no injustice to the loyal men of the South— they 
meant no exclusive privileges to the rebels; they simply meant disgust at 
the failure of Congress to give a good financial system to the country; and, 
sir, I believe also at the failure of Congress to rebuke and punish the mis- 
conduct of the President of the United States. 

I will bring to the recollection of gentlemen the dark days of 1862. 
Earnest men were then disgusted with the inaction of the Union party, and 
the opposition swept all the States that they carried at the last election, 
and Ohio besides, and then these same gentlemen predicted the destruc- 
tion of the Union party and the overthrow of its principles; and, with Val- 
landigham, Seymour, and company in the foreground, excited the spirit 



140 HAMILTON WARD. 

and uttered the doctrines they are proclaiming to-day; and iu 1S(>3 they were 
swept from the nation's path as with a besome of destruction. So it will ba 
again if they continue to "kick against the pricks." 

Sir, the constitutions that have been adopted by the conventions that 
have been held in the South are wise and beneficent instruments, guaran- 
tying to the people of those States for the first time in their history the 
full rights of American citizens. Some of the States will adopt the con- 
stitutions and send their members to Congress, and as to those the work 
of i-estoration will be complete. Others, acting on the dangerous advice 
of the President, will delay, reject the constitutions, and still remain un- 
der military control; for of this they can be assured, that until they come 
up to the full measure of the demands of the people upon them they will 
remain where they are. 

But, Mr. Chairman, it is charged that we have delayed reconstruc- 
tion and squandered the public money for party purposes. Sir, I deny it. 
Had the South accepted the constitutional amendment submitted by Con- 
gress and approved by the people m 1866 the work would have been done 
months ago; but the President and the Democratic party advised against 
it, and so the amendment was rejected. 

Then, Congress determined on reconstruction, prescribed another pol- 
icy, one that would execute itself and did not depend upon rebel aid; a 
policy of justice and equal rights, that permitted the loyal men of the 
South to become actors in the great work. And they are at work, sir; and 
if let alone they will accomplish reconstruction in ninety days. And now 
the President and his party are doing all in their power to prevent it. Sir, 
they are the obstruction, not we. 

Mr. Chairman, the country needs repose. Let gentlemen rise for once 
above the dead level of the partisan, above plotting and scheming for rebel 
help to restore their party to power, and take hold with us faithfully and 
earnestly to bring the country back to peace. Six thousand million dollars 
of property, public and private, has been expended or destroyed in this 
war, and by that much the nation is poorer to-day. Great want and des- 
titution prevails all over the South. Capital is stagnant; labor is dull 
everywhere and looks in vain for employment; hundreds of thousands of 
laboring men and women at the North are out of work and are looking 
with anxious faces into the grim winter, and wondering how they are to 
keep the wolf from the door. Our finances are disordered, national bank- 
ruptcy is imminent, and repudiation, the vilest of all national sins, ig 
openly advocated. 

Sir, this condition of things needs the closest economy, the most ju- 
dicious expenditure of the public moneys, an equal and just distribution 



SPEECH ON IlECOXSTKUCTIOX 1808. 141 

of the public burdens, and presents a problem the solutiou of which will 
tax the highest "resources of statesmanship." Reconstruction is the hinge 
upon which all eJse turns. We can have no peace, no safe financial condi- 
tion, until we have a just and sound reconstruction. Let Congress com- 
plete its work. Why delay? Why should the opposition delude the south- 
ern rebels with false hopes longer? Let the work be finished now, and 
your military will be withdrawni, and the "wayward sisters" will swing 
into line and renew their old relations with the Federal Union. But, sir, 
let the opposition theory prevail and I will not predict the result. Tho 
contest then will only be begun. Kobbed of their rights the loyalists of 
the South will struggle to regain them, like men who "know those rights" 
and "dare maintain" them. The traitor horde, restored to exclusive power, 
will gratify the hate of race and all the brutal feelings of revenge upon 
them. Society will be shaken from center to circumference, industry will 
languish, and that afflicted portion of our country, once so fair and pros- 
perous, will continue to be convulsed with the strife of men, on the one 
side for justice and on the other side for power. The people of the North 
will, as now, divide upon the question; and so the contest wil go on until 
the problem will be .solvetl in blood or the people reassert their God-given 
rights by revolution at the ballot-box. Sir, we can avoid all further con- 
tention and war, and dispose of the negro question in this country for all 
time, by simply giving the ballot, the only protection of freemen, to the 
people impartially. Then, sir, the last peril that threatens thie Republic 
will be ended; then the North and South, East and West will stand in har- 
mony together, bound by a common interest, working out a common and 
most glorious destiny. Like giant sentinels they will stand, upholding and 
guarding the temple of freedom for us and our posterity forever. 

Considering- Mr. Ward's advanced position on recon- 
struction, and his attitude toward the President, it is not sur- 
prising that when the great crisis arrived and the House 
decided for the first time in the nation's history to present 
articles of impeachment against the Chief Magistrate that 
Hamilton \v'ard was nam.ed as one of a Committee of Seven 
*'To declare articles of impeachment against the President 
of the United States." This was on February 25, 1868. 
The Committee was as follows : George S. Boutwell of 
Massachusetts. Thadius Stevens of Pennsylvania, John A. 
Bingham of Ohio, John A. Logan of Illinois, James F. Wil- 
son of Iowa, George W. Julian of Indiana and Hamilton 
Ward of New York. Next to the Constitution, the De- 



142 HAMILTON WARD. 

claration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion, these articles of impeachment were the most miportant 
State papers in the history of our Government, and the fact 
of beino- selected to perform this great and dangerous duty, 
dangerous if the plans of Johnson had succeeded, was the 
hi-hest honor that came to Hamilton Ward durmg his long 
and useful life. The other members of the Committee were 
the leaders of the nation, and history deals clearly with 
each one of them. . . , o. . 

The honor done Mr. Ward and his district and btate 
was appreciated by his constituents. 

The Elmira Daily Advertiser, the leading paper ot tne 
district, on February 26th, 1868, says: 

"It will be noticed that Hon. Hamilton Ward is a member repress- 
ing the State of New York, on the Committee of the House of Representa- 
tives to prepare articles of impeachment against the President. To be 
so selected and placed on this Committee, the most momentous ever raised 
in the history of Congress, is a compliment of which his constituents may 
well be proud. Mr. Ward is worthy of the honor thus bestowed upon him, 
and will fulfill has important duty with stern and fearless justice." 

On Februarv 29th, 1868, the Committee reported arti- 
cles of impeachment which being discussed, a final report 
was made on March 2nd. 

The Articles of Impeachment are as follows: 

Article 1. 

That «aid Andrew .Johnson, President of the United States, on the 
21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 18(». at Washington, in the 
District of Columbia, unmindful of the high duties of his office, of his oath 
of office and of the requirements of the Constitution that he should take 
care that the laws be faithfully executed, did unlawfully and in violation of 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, issue an order in writing for 
the removal of Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Secretary for tie De- 
partment of War, said Edwin M. Stanton having been theretofore duly ap- 
pointed and commissioned, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen- 
ate of the United States, as such Secretary, and said Andrew .Johnson, 
President of the United States, on the 12th day of August, in the year of 



AliTlCLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 113 

our Lord, 18(;7, and duriug the recess of said Senate, luivin;,' suspended by 
his order Edwin M. Stanton from said office, and within twenty days 
after the first day of the next meeting of said Senate, that is to say. on 
the lUh day of December, in the year last aforesaid, having reported to 
said Senate such suspension with the evidence and reasons for his actiou 
in the case and the name of the person designated to perform the duties 
of such olfice temporarily until the next meeting of the Senate, and said 
Senate thereafterward on the 13th day of January, in the year of our 
l.ord, 18b8, having duly considered the evidence and reasons reported by 
said Andrew Johnson for said suspension, and having refused to concur 
in said suspension, whereby and by force of the provisions of an Act entitled 
Ai, act regulating the tenure of certain civil ofQces," passed March 2 
1867, said Edwin M. Stanton did forthwith resume the functions of his 
office, whereof the said Andrew Johnson had then and there due notice 
and said Edwin M. Stanton, by reason of the premises, on said 21st day of 
February, being lawfully entitled to hold said office of Secretary for the 
Department of War, which said order, for the removal of said Edwin M 
Stanton is. in substance, as follows, that is to say: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, 
Sir:- Feb. 21. 1868. 

By virtue of the power and auth^irity vested in me as President by 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, you are hereby removed 
from office as Secretary for the Department of War, and your functions 
as such will terminate upon the receipt of this communication. 

You will transfer to Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas Adju- 
tant General of the Army, who has this day been authorized and empow- 
ered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, ail records, books, papers and 
other public property now in your custody and charge. 
Respectfully yours, 

Hon. Edwin Af. Stanton. ANDREW JOHNSON. 

Washington, l>. (J. 

Which order was unlawfully issued with intent then and there to 
violate the act entitled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil 
offices," passed March 2, 1867, and, with further intent contrary to the 
provisions of said act, in violation thereof, and contrary to the provision, 
of th*> Constitution of the United States, and without the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate of the United States, the said Senate then and there 
being in session, to remove said Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Sec- 



144 HAMILTON WARD. 

retary for the Department of War, the said Edwin M. Stanton being then 
and there Secretary of War, and being then and there in the due and law- 
ful execution and discharge of the duties of said oflace, whereby said An- 
drew Johnson, President of the United States, did then and there commit 
and was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. 

Article II. 

That on said 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, 
at Washington, D. C, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United 
States, unmindful of the high duties of his office, of his oath of office, 
and in violation of the Constitution of the United States and contrary to 
the provisions of an act entitled: "An Act regulating the tenure of certain 
civil offices," passed March 2, 18G7, without the advice and consent of the 
Senate of the United States, said Senate then and there being in session, 
and without authority of law, did with intent to violate the Constitution 
of the United States and the act aforesaid, issue and deliver to one, Lo- 
renzo Thomas, a letter of authority in substance as follows, that is to say: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, 

Feb. 21, 1868. 
Sir: — Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having been this day removed from 
office as Secretary for the Department of War, you are hereby author- 
ized and empowered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, and will im- 
mediately enter upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to that office, 
Mr. Stanton has been instructed to transfer to you all the records, 
books, papers and other public property now in his custody and charge. 
Respectfully yours, 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
To Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General, United 
States Army, Washington, D. C. 

Then and there being no vacancy in said office of Secretary for the 
Department of War, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, did then and there commit and was guilty of a high misde- 
meanor in office. 

Article III. 

That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, on the 
21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, at Washington, in 
the District of Columbia, did commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor 



ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 145 

in ofBcc in this, that, without authority of law, while the Senate of the 
United States was then and there in session, he did appoint one, Lorenzo 
Thomas, to be Secretary for the Department of War ad interim, without 
the advice and consent of the Senate, and with intent to violate the Con- 
stitution of the United States, no vacancy having happened in said ofBce 
of Secretary for the Department of War during the recess of the Senate, 
and no vacancy existing in said office at the time, and which said appoint- 
ment so made by said Andrew Johnson, of said Lorenzo Thomas, is in sub- 
stance as follows, that is to say: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, 

Feb. 21, 1868. 
Sir: — Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having been this day removed from 
office as Secretary for the Department of War, you are hereby authorized 
and empowered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, and will immedi- 
ately enter upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to that office. 

Mr. Stanton has been instructed to transfer to you all the records, 
books, papers and other public property now in his custody and charge. 
Respectfully yours, 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
To Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General, United 
States Army, Washington, D. C. 

Article IV. 

That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- 
ful of the high duties of his office, of bis oath of office, and in violation 
of the Constitution and laws of United States, on the 21st day of Feb- 
ruary, in the year of our Lord, 1808, at Washington, in the District of 
Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one Lorenzo Thomas, and with 
other persons of the House of Representatives unknown, with intent, by 
intimidation and threats unlawfully to hinder and prevent Edwin M. 
Stanton, then and there the Secretary for the Department of War, duly 
appointed under the laws of the United States, from holding said office 
of Secretary for the Department of War, contrary to and in violation of 
the Constitution of the United States, and of the provisions of an Act en- 
titled "An act to define and punish certain conspiracies," approvetl July 
31st, 1861, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, 
did then and there commit, and was guilty of a high crime in office. 

Article V. 
That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmiud- 



140 HAMILTON WARD. 

fill of the high duties of his ofiice and of his oath of ofiBce, on the 21st day 
of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, aud on divers and other days 
and times in said year, before the 2d day of March, A. D., 1SG8, at Wash- 
ington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one, 
Lorenzo Thomas, and with other persons to the House of Representa- 
tives unknown, to prevent and hinder the execution of an Act entitled: "An 
act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March the 2d, 1867, 
and in pursuance of said conspiracy did unlawfully attempt to prevent 
Edwin M. Stanton then aud there being Secretary for the Department of 
War, duly appointed and commissioned under the laws of the United 
States from holding said othce, whereby the said Andrew Johnson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, did then and there commit and was guilty of 
a high misdemeanor in office. 

Article VI. 

That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- 
ful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, on the 21st day 
of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, at Washington, im the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one Lorenzo Thomas, by 
force to seize, take, and possess the property of the United States in the 
Department of War, and then and there in the custody of Edwin M. Stan- 
ton, Secretary for said Department, contrary to the provisions of an Act 
entitled: "An Act to define and punish certain conspiracies," approved 
July 31st, 1861, and with intent to violate and disregard an Act entitled 
"An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 2nd, 
1867, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did 
then and there commit a high crime in office. 

Article VII. 

That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- 
ful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, on the 21st day 
of February, in the year of our Lord, 1808, at Washington, in the District 
of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one Lorenzo Thomas with in- 
tent unlawfully to seize, take and possess the property of the United 
States in the Department of War, in the custody and charge of Edwin 
M. Stanton, Secretary for said Department, with intent to violate and dis- 
regard the Act entitled "An Act regulating the tenure of certain civil 
offices," passed March 2nd, 1867, whereby said Andrew Johnson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, did then and there commit a high misdemeanor 
in office. 



ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 147 

Article VIII. 

That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- 
ful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, with intent 
unlawfully to control the disbursements of the moneys appropriated for the 
Military Service and for tlie Department of War, on the 21st day of Feb- 
ruary, in the year of our I^ord, 18G8, at Washington, in the District of 
Columbia, did unlawfully and contrary to the provisions of an Act enti- 
tled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 
2nd. 3S67, and in violation of the constitution of the United States, and 
without the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, and 
while the Senate was then and there in session, there being no vacancy 
in the office of Secretary for the Department of War, with intent to vio- 
late and disregard the act aforesaid, then and there issue and deliver 
to on<>, Lorenzo Thomas, a letter of authority and writing in substance 
as follows, that is to say: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, 

Feb. 21, 1868. 
Sir:— Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having been this day removed from 
office as Secretary for the Department of War you are hereby authorized 
and empowered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, and will immedi- 
ately enter upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to that office. 

Mr. Stanton has been instructed to transfer to you all the records, 
books, papers and all other public property now in his custody and charge. 
Respectfully yours, 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
To Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the 
United States Army, Washington, D. C. 

Whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States did 
then and there commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. 

Article IX. 

That said Andrew .Johnson, President of the United States, on the 
22nd day of February, in the year of our Lord, 18G8, at Washington, in 
the District of Columbia, in disregard of the Constitution and the laws 
of the United States, duly enacted, as Commander in Chief of the Army 
of the United States, did bring before himself then and there William H. 
Emory, a Major General by Brevet in the army of the Unite<l States, 
actually in command of the Department of Washington, and the military 



148 HAMILTON WARD. 

forces thereof, and did then and there, as such Commander in Chief, de- 
clare to and instruct said Emory that part of a law of the United States, 
passed March 2nd, 18G7, entitled, "An Act making appropriations for the 
support of the Army for the year ending June 30th, 18G8, and for other 
purposes," especially the second section thereof, which provides, among 
other things, that "all orders and instructions relating to military opera- 
tions issued by the President or Secretary of War shall be issued through 
the General of the Army, and, in case of his inability, through the next 
in rank, "was unconstitutional and in contrevention of the commission of 
the said Emory, and which said provision of law had been theretofore duly 
and legally promulgated, by general order for the government and direction 
of the Army of the United States, as the said Andrew Johnson then and 
there well knew with intent thereby to induce said Emory, in his official 
capacity as Commander of the Department of Washington, to violate the 
provisions of said act, and to take and receive, act upon, and obey such 
orders as he, the said Andrew Johnson, might make and give, and which 
should not be issued through the General of the Army of the United States, 
according to the provisions of the said Act, and with the further intent 
thereby to enable him, the said Andrew Johnson, to prevent the execution 
of an act entitled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," 
passed March 2nd, 1867, and to unlawfully prevent Edwin M. Stanton, 
then being Secretary for the Department of War, from holding said office 
and discharging the duties thereof, whereby said Andrew Johnson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, did then and there commit and was guilty of a 
high misdemeanor in office. 



Article X. 
That said Andrew .Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- 
ful of the high duties of his office and the dignity and proprieties thereof, 
and of the harmony and courtesies which ought to exist and be maintained 
between the executive and legislative branches of the Government of the 
United States, designing and intending to set aside thie rightful authority 
and powers of Congress, did attempt to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, 
contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States and the several 
branches thereof, to impair and destroy the regard and respect of all the 
good people of the United States for the Congress and legislative power 
thereof, (which all officers of the Government ought inviolably to preserve 
and maintain,) and to excite the odium and resentment of all the good 
people of the United States against Congress and the laws by it duly and 
constitutionally enacted; and in pursuance of his said design and intent, 
openly and publicly, and before divers assemblages of the citizens of the 
United States convened in divers parts thereof to meet and receive said 



ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 149 

Andrew Johnson as the Chief Magistrate of the United States, did, on the 
18th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1806, and on divers other days 
and times, as well before as afterward, make and deliver with a loud voice 
certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and did 
therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces as well against Congress as 
the laws of the United States duly enacted thereby, amid the cries, jeers, 
and laughter of the multitudes then assembled and within hearing, which 
are set forth in the several specifications hereinafter written, in substance 
and effect, that is to say: 

Specification First.— In this, that at Washington, in the District of 
Columbia, in the Executive Mansion, to a committee of citizens who called 
upon the President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the 
Congress of the United States, said Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, heretofore, to wit, on the 18th day of August, in the year of 
our Lord 18GG, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, amon; 
other things, that is to say: 

"So far as the executive department of the Government is concerned, 
the effort lias been made to restore the Union, to heal the breach, to pour 
oil into the wounds which were consequent upon the struggle, and (to speak 
in common phrase) to prepare, as the learned and wise physician would, a 
plaster healing in character and coextensive with the wound. We thought, 
and we think, that we partially succeeded; but as the work progresses, as 
reconstruction seemed to be taking place, and the country was becoming 
reunited, Wie found a disturbing and marring element opposing us. In 
alluding to that element, I shall go no further than your convention and the 
distinguished gentleman who has delivered to me the report of its proceed- 
ings. I shall make no reference to it that I do not believe the time and thi© 
occasion justify. 

"We have witnessed in one department of the Government every en- 
deavor to prevent the restoration of peace, harmony, and Union. We have 
seen hanging upon the verge of the Government, as it were, a body called, 
or which assumes to be, the Congress of the United States, while in fact it 
is a Congress of only a part of the States. We have seen this Congress pre- 
tend to be for the Union, when its every step and act tended to perpetuate 
disunion and make a disruption of the States inevitable." • * * • "We 
have seen Congress gradually encroach step by stop upon constitutionaJ 
rights, and violate, day after day and month after month, fundamental 
principles of the Government. We have seen a Congress that seemed to 
forget that there was a limit to the sphere and scope of legislation. We 
have seen a Congress in a minority assume to exercise power which, allowed 
to b« consummated, would result in despotism or monarchy itself." 



150 HAMILTON WARD. 

Specification Second.— In this, that at Cleveland, in the State of Ohio, 

heretofore, to wit, on the 3d day of September, in the year of our Lord 18G6, 

before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson, 

President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of 

the United States did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect among 

other things, that is to say: 

"I will tell you what I did do. I called upon your Congress that is 

trying to break up the Government." 

******* * 

"In conclusion, beside that, Congress had taken much pains to poison 
their constituents against him. But what had Congress done? Have they 
done anything to restore the union of these States? No; on the couti-ary, 
they had done everything to prevent it; and because he stood now where he 
did when the rebellion commenced, he had been denounced as a traitor. 
Who had i-un greater risk or made greater sacrifices than himself? Butt 
Congress, factious and domineering, had undertaken to poison the minds of 
the American people." 

Specification Third.— In this, that at St. Louis, in the State of 
Missouri, heretofore, to wit, on the 8th day of September, in the year of our 
Lord 1866, before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the 
Congress of the United States, did, in a loud voice, declare, in substance 
and effect, among other things, that is to say: 

"Go on. Perhaps if you had a word or two on the subject of New Or- 
leans you might understand more about it than you do. And if you will go 
back — if you will go back and ascertain the cause of the riot at New Or- 
leans, perhaps you will not be so prompt in calling out 'New Orleans.' If 
you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to its source or 
its immediate cause, you will find out who was responsible for the blood 
that was shed there. If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace 
it back to the Radical Congress you will find that the riot at New Orleans 
was substantially planned. If you will take up the proceedings in their 
caucuses you will understand that they there knew that a convention was to 
be called which was extinct by its power having expired; that it was said 
that the intention was that a new government was to be organized, and on 
the organization of that government the intention was to enfranchise one 
portion of the population, called the colored population, who had just been 
emancipated, and at the same time disfranchise white men. When you de- 
sign to talk about New Orleans you ought to understand what you are 
talking about. When you read the speeches that were made, and take up 
the facts on the Friday and Saturday before that convention sat, you will 
there find that speeches were made incendiary in their character, exciting 
that portion of the population, the black population, to arm themselves and 



ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 151 

prepare for tlie shedding of blood. You will also find that that corveution 
did assemble in violation of law, and the intention of that conveu^lou was to 
supersede the reorganized authorities in the State government of Louisiana^ 
which had been recognized by the Government of the United States; and 
every man engaged in that rebellion in that convention, ^rith the intention 
of supei-seding and uptui-ning the civil government which had been recog- 
nized by the Government of the United States, I say that be was a traitor 
to the Constitution of the United States, and hence you find that another 
rebellion was commenced having its origin in the Radical Congress." * * 

"So much for the New Orleans riot. And there was the cause and 
the origin of the blood that was shed; and every drop of blood that was 
shed is upon their skirts, and they are responsible for it. I could test this 
thing a little closer, but will not do it here to-night. But when you talk 
about the causes and consequences that resulted from proceedings of that 
kind, perhaps, as I have been introduced here, and you have provoked ques- 
tions of this kind, though it does not provoke me, I will tell yon a few 
wholesome things that have been done by this Radical Congress in con- 
nection with New Orleans and the extension of the elective franchise. 

"I know that I have been traduced and abused. I know it has come 

in advance of me here, as elsewhere, that I have attempted to exercise an 

arbitrary power in resisting laws that were intended to be forced upon the 

Government; that I had exercised that power; that I had abandoned tho 

party that elected me, and that I was a traitor, because I exercised the 

veto power in attempting and did arrest for a time a bill that was called a 

'Freedman's Bureau' bill; yes, that I was a traitor. And I have been 

traduced, I have been slandered, I have been maligned, I have been called 

Judas Iscariot, and all that. Now, my countrymen here to-night, it is very 

easy to indulge in epithets; it is easy to call a man a Judas, and cry out 

traitor; but when he is called upon to give arguments and facts he is very 

often found wanting. Judas Iscariot — Judas. There was a Judas and he 

was one of the twelve apostles. Oh! yes, the twelve apostles had a Christ. 

The twelve apostles had a Christ, and he never could have had a Judas 

unless he had had twelve apostles. If I have played the Judas, who has 

been my Christ that I have played Judas with? Was it Thad. Stevens? 

Was it Wendell Phillips? Was it Charles Sumner? These are the men 

that stop and compare themselves witli the Saviour; and everybody that 

differs with them in opinion, and to try and stay and arrest the diabolical 

and nefraious policy, is to be denounced as a Judas." 

******* * 

"Well, let nu- s:)y to you, if yon will stand by me in this action; if 

you will stand by mo in trying to give the people a fair chance, soldiers and 

citizens, to participate in these offices. God being willing, I will kick them 

out. I will kick them out just as fast as I can. 



152 HAMILTON WARD. 

"Let uie say to you, in concluding, that what I have said I intended to 
say. I was not provoked into this, and I care not for their menaces, the 
taunts, and the jeers. I care not for threats. I do not intend to be bullied 
by my enemies nor overawed by my friends. But, God willing, with your 
help I will veto their measures whenever any of them come to me." 

Which said utterances, declarations, threats, and harangues, highly 
censurable in any, are peculiarly indecent and unbecoming in the Chief 
Magistrate of the United States, by means whereof said Andrew Johnson 
has brought the high oflBce of the President of the United States into con- 
tempt, ridicule, and disgrace, to the great scandal of all good citizens, 
whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did commit, 
and was then and there guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. 
Article XI. 
That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, un- 
mindful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, and in dis- 
regard of the Constitution and laws of the United States, did heretofore, 
to wit: on the 18th day of August, 1866, at the city of Washington, and the 
District of Columbia, by public speech, declare and affirm in substance, 
that the Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States was not a Congress of 
the United States authorized by the Constitution to exercise legislative 
power under the same; but, on the contrary, was a Congress of only part 
of the States, thereby denying and intending to deny that the legislation of 
said Congress was valid or obligatry upon him, the said Andrew Johnson, 
except in so far as he saw fit to approve the same, and also thereby deny- 
ing and intending to deny the power of the said Thirty-ninth Congress to 
propose amendments to the Constitution of the United States; and, in pur- 
suance of said declaration, the said Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, afterward, to wit: on the 21st day of February, 1868, at 
the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully and 
in disregard of the requirements of the Constitution, that he should take 
care that the laws be faithfully executed, attempt to prevent the execution 
of an act entitled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices,'* 
passed March 2, 1867, by unlawfully devising and contriving, and attempt- 
ing to devise and contrive, means by which he should prevent Edwin M, 
Stanton from forthwith resuming the functions of the office of Secretary 
for the Department of War, notwithstanding the refusal of the Senate to 
concur in the suspension therefor made by said Andrew Johnson, of said 
Edwin M. Stanton from said office of Secretary for the Department of War, 
and also by further unlawfully devising and contriving, and attempting to 
devise and contrive means then and there to prevent the execution of an 
act entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the Army for 
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1868, and for other purposes," approved 



SPEECH ON ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 153 

March 2, 18G7, and also to prevent the execution of an act entitled "An 
act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," 
passed March 2, 1867; whereby the said Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, did then, to wit: on the 21st day of February, 1868, at the 
city of Washington, commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. 
And the House of Representatives, by protestation, saving to them- 
selves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any further Articles 
or other accusation or impeachment against the said Andrew Johnson, 
President of the United States, and also of replying to his answers which 
he shall make to the articles herein preferred against him, and of 
ofifering proof to the same and every part thereof, and to all and every 
other article, accusation or impeachment which shall be exhibited by them, 
fis the case shall require, do demand that the said Andrew Johnson may 
be put to answer the high crimes and misdemeanors in office herein charged 
against him, and that such proceedings, examinations, trials, and judg- 
ments may be thereupon had and given as may be agreeable to law and 
justice. 

During the discussion which preceded the final report, 
Mr. Ward on March 22nd, spoke as follows (the House 
being in Committee of the Whole) : 

Mr. Chairman, I deem it proper to submit a few observations upon 
the subject under consideration, and that subject I understand to be the 
Articles of Impeachment reported by the Committee of Seven for the con- 
sideration of this House against the President of the United States. 

I am free to say, sir, that I should have been satisfied if the Com- 
mittee had reported, in addition to the Articles which have been pre- 
sented, Articles for some of the grave offenses which this high offender 
had committed prior to the removal of the Secretary of War. I should be 
glad to see him arraigned for the usurpation of legislative power. I should 
bo glad to see him arraigned for the prostitution of the veto power, the par- 
doning power, and the power of appointing to office of which he has been 
guilty, for the purpose of reinstating the power of the rebellion in this 
country. 

But sir, I bow respectfully to the superior wisdom of my colleagues 
upon that committee, and I am here to support the report which the com- 
mittee have made. 

The first article which has been presented by the Committee charged 
that the President of the United States, in violation of the Constitution 
and of the tenure of office act has removed the Secretary of War from 
his high office during the session of the Senate. Now, I submit that that 
is an offense under the Constitution and the laws of this land. 



154 HAMILTON WARD. 

There is hnt one provision in the Constitution regulating the appoint- 
ment to or removal from office. That provision is contained in the second 
section of the second article of the Constitution, which provides that "The 
President shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate shall appoint, embassadors, other public ministers, consuls, judges 
of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose ap- 
pointments are not otherwise therein provided for." 

That, sir, is the only provision of the Constitution upon the subject 
of appointment to and removal from office, except the provision which 
authorizes the President to fill up all vacancies which may happen during 
a recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which may expire at the 
end of their next session. 

The appointing power is vested in the President and the Senate. 
Nothing is said in the Constitution upon the subject of removal. I con- 
tend that the just inference to be drawn from that provision is that the 
power of removal shall rest where the power of appointment does, in the 
President and Senate; because, unless you adopt that construction, the 
President can nominate on one side of the Senate and he can remove on 
the other side of the Senate, and thus nullify this provisioni of the Con- 
stitution. 

The men who framed the Constitution framed it for a purpose. 
There is nothing in it but what has sense and is meant to accomplish a 
purpose. They put this provision in the Constitution for this purpose; 
that the President should not stand unchecked and unchallenged through 
all time in the appointment to and removal from office under this Govern- 
ment, and so they put this provision in the Constitution: that before any 
officer should take upon him the functions of an office the Senate should 
concur in his appointment. 

Now, I submit that the power which makes can alone unmake. I sub- 
mit that the President has no power. The very moment the Senate has con- 
curred in his appointment, the very moment the Secretary of War or the 
Secretary of the Treasury or any other functionary has assumed the 
duties of his office, he has no right to turn around the very next hour 
and remove him. If that be so then this provision of the Constitution is 
nonsense, and those who framed the Constitution did not know how to 
perfoi-m the duty they attempted. 

But suppose I am mistaken in this; what further have we in the 
case? The legislative power of this Government has construed this Con- 
stitution. It has said by solemn law, passed not only originally by a ma- 
jority of each House, but passed subsequently over the President's veto 
by more than two-thirds of each of the two Houses, that no removal was 
proper except by the specific means through which the appointment can 
be made, namely, by the President and the Senate. 



SrEECH ON ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 155 

Now the President, after months of reflection, after much investiga- 
tion, after these laws bave been brought to his attention, has openly, 
definately, and in the very face and teeth of this statute, and, as I contend, 
of the Constitution, removed the Secretary of War from office. That is his 
first offense — that is a great offense. 

What else has he done? He has gone into the Army, gone among 
his subordinates, and picked up his creature and his tool, and said to him: 
"You are now Secretary of War ad interim; go into the War Office and 
take possession of the books. papei'S, records, and property of that De- 
partment." Who ever heard of a Secretary of War ad interim 
or any other officer ad interim appointed under this Government 
while the Senate was in session? There is no authority for it, 
no shadow of law for it. It is unfounded and rank usurpa- 
tion. If the President can appoint a Secretary of War ad interim 
during a session of the Senate for ten days he can appoint him for thirty 
days or for thi-ee months or for three years. If the President of the United 
States can appoint a man Secretary of War ad interim he can fill every 
office in the land by men from the Army, calling them appointees ad in- 
terim. Every postmaster, every revenue officer, every Federal officer in 
the land can be turned out to-morrow, if the President can direct his 
military subordinates to occupy the position ad interim, i-efusing to send 
any nominations to the Senate. By this plan the President can put the 
Army into all the civil offices, can refuse to carry out the Constitutional 
provision, and defy the law, and, if he is so disposed, become a military 
despot, with his creatures filling every civil office. 

Now, sir, that is another crime. I have no time to go over the other 
articles; but here is his great crime. He who is sworu to execute the 
law; he who is put up as the great example of obedience to law; he who 
is our high civil and military magnate and magistrate, sets the example 
of defying the laws of the United States, and we must either permit him 
to go on and defy them with impunity; to override the Constitution and 
the laws; to put his creatures in office without limit and without stint, 
or Congress must stand up now and here, on the very threshold of his 
usurpation, and vindicate the laws. That, Mr. Chairman, is the solemn 
question we are called upon to meet. 

But gentlemen on the Democratic side say this is a party matter, a 
party prosecution. I say to those gentlemen that there is a class of men 
who never get above the dead level of party, never entertain an idea or 
comprehend a feeling or motive that rises above party. So wedded to 
party are they and have they been that all through the years of blood and 



166 HAMILTON WARD. 

terror throngh ■which our country has recently passed they have been 
repeating this cry of "Party, party, party," as they do in the midst of the 
present burning crisis, when the fate of th.e Republic hangs upon our hands, 
when the great interests of posterity are suspended in the balance; when 
liberty and justice and everything else we hold sacred are at stake. Do 
not these gentlemen know that the laws should be enforced, whether 
against the obscurest criminal or against Andrew Johnson, their creature 
and tool whom they have seduced from his duty, from his allegiance to his 
party and the country, to become their instrument and the instrument of 
their rebel friends? Do they not know that, in sustaining him in his vio- 
lations of law, they set a precedent that may return to plague them? Do 
they not know that it is our duty here to rise above party considerations; 
that where we find a great offender, no matter how high he may be, we 
should put our hand upon him and punish him. 

Now, sir, I can understand well why this clamor of party is brought 
up here. I can understand it very well. Gentlemen have used this man 
Johnson for their purposes. They desire to use him still further. To cut 
off now his official life, just when they need him so much, when they ex- 
pect with his help by the aid of government patronage and power to hand 
the country over to the men who have been engaged in rebellion, would 
be a serious disaster to them. 

Sir, if I know my own heart and if I know as I believe I do, the 
feeling of the majority of the gentlemen on this floor, we entertain in this 
measure no such party feeling as that which is attributed to us. Had 
we desired to remove Mr. Johnson for party purposes we should have 
done so long ago; we should have done it when coming into the White 
House he betrayed us as a party. We should not have permitted him to 
slaughter our friends by removing them from ofiBce, using his whole power 
for three years to carry out the purposes for which he abandoned his 
party and his friends. Now, sir, if we had any such motive we should 
have taken that course. The party has been forebeariug: it has been con- 
siderate. It has waited and watched and hoped that this man would so 
conduct himself as not to force them to this last dire extremity. But, sir, 
under the counsel and encouragement of those bad men who have so long 
engaged in the effort to destroy this government, he has at last precipi- 
tated himself against the law and the Constitution. He has forced this 
issue upon us, and we shall meet it like men. 

These articles will be sent to the Senate. Andrew Johnson will be 
put upon his trial. He will, ini my judgment, be convicted, and the Ex- 
ecutive office that so long has been disgraced and dishonored by him will 
be filled by another man. The march of progress and of right and of 
justice and of humanity, which has been so long checked by the vindictive- 
ne.ss of this man, Andrew Johnson, and the men associated with him, will 



A NIGHT WITH STANTON AT THE WAR OFFICE. 157 

then go on toward the consummation of its glorious work. Then this 
creature of rebellion and democracy; this apostate President; this man 
who has been so negligent of his high duties; will be consigned, in my 
judgment, in the history of this country, in the language of a Senator who 
once spoke burning words of eloquence in the other end of the Capitol, "to 
an infamy so deep, so damning, so profound that the hand of resurrection 
will never reach him." 

Those were stormy days and the loyal men of the 
Union feared that the results of the war w^ould be lost 
through the action and policy of the President. But Stan- 
ton, the great War Secretary, stood like a rock in Johnson's 
path. 

The following interview which was printed in several 
New York State newspapers in 1893 tells its own story of 
these times: 

A NIGHT WITH STANTON AT THE WAR OFFICE. 



Thrilling Historical Interview with Hon. Hamilton Ward, Presiding 
Justice Supreme Court, Eighth Judicial District. 

(Lockport Daily Journal.) 

It is well known that Judge Hamilton Ward was a member of the 
first three Congresses that followed the overthrow of the Rebellion. He 
was an intense radical Republican and was active in all the movements 
which led to the impeachment of President Johnson, and his trial, and the 
amendments to the Constitution which followed the war, his term in Con- 
gress commencing in the spring of 180.') and terminating in 1871. He was 
particularly active in the reconstruction! of the States of the South, being 
a member of the Reconstruction Committee of the South. 

"Come, Judge," we said, "give us some reminiscences of the recon- 
struction period." 

"Perhaps," ho said, after a moment's reflection, "the history of a 
night of mine with Secretary Stanton might interest you as much as any- 
thing I could tell you, "and he proceeded: 

"In the latter part of 18G7, after the Republican Congress had hope- 
lessly abandoned President Johnson as false to the party and to the 
principles upon which the Union had been saved and restored, there was 
a movement on foot in Congress to impeach the President for high crimes 
and misdemeanors. The President was particularly hostile to Stanton, 



158 HAIMILTON WARD. 

who was then Secretary of War; and on the 12th of August, 1867, he sus- 
pended Stanton as such Secretary and appointed General Grant as Secre- 
tary ad interim. This was while the Senate was not in session. Stanton 
protested against the suspension, claiming it illegal; but as General Grant, 
in whom he had supreme confidence, was to discharge the duties of the 
War Department, he consented to turn over the office to him under pro- 
test; and Grant discharged the duties of the office until some time in the 
following winter when the Senate, refusing to concur in the removal of 
Stanton, he was restored to the War Office, and took his place again, as I 
remember it, in January, 1868. The impeachment sentiment had grown 
very strong at this time, and early in February, 1868, proceedings were 
taken in the House of Representatives, indicating decided action in that 
direction. The President saw the impending storm and seemed determined 
at all hazards to get rid of Stanton, and although Congress had passed, 
in the spring of 1807 what was known as the Tenure of Office Act, which 
in substance required the consent of the Senate to the appointment of a 
Cabinet officer, still the President, in defiance of the act, and in the face 
of a public sentiment that Stanton should be retained in his office, on the 
21st of February, 1868, by an order, removed Stanton from the office of 
Secretary of War and appointed Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas Sec- 
retary of War ad interim, and directed him to take possession of the War 
Office, its books and records, and directed Stanton to deliver them to him. 
This the great War Secretary refused to do; and in order to maintain pos- 
session of the office he remained personally in the office night and day, as 
I remember it, for several weeks, "holding the fort." This precipitated the 
impeachment; and on the 24th of February articles of impeachment were 
preferred against the President. I was one of the committee to prepare 
the articles of impeachment, and I had several conferences with the Secre- 
tary, and with others, as the affair proceeded. Republican Senators and 
Members advised the Secretary by all means to retain possession of the 
War Office; that his attempted removal was illegal, and that possibly the 
safety of the country was involved in his retaining his position until the 
determination of the impeachment proceedings. So, soon after he took 
upon himself this voluntary imprisonment in the War Office, I was per- 
mitted to remain with him as a sole companion for several nights, the most 
important of which I will refer to. 

"The Secretary was a stout, well built man, with a most impressive 
and interesting countenance, a massive head and brow, and the most 
speaking and searching eye that I ever saw in a human being. On the night 
in question, after reposing for awhile upon a lounge that he had in the 
office — for he slept with his clothes on at night upon this lounge — he roused 
\in, seemingly refreshed, and began a pleasant conversation with me about 



A NIOIIT WITH STAXTON AT THE WAK OFFICE. 159 

some matter, when I inquired of him, 'Mr. Secretary, will you allow me 
to ask you your opinion of President Lincoln? Was he really a great man? 
Was he a man of the highest order of talent? Or was he not so great, 
but true and loyal and filling in a large measure all the requirements of his 
great place and his delicate position? Please tell me something about him— 
I mean some of the things that do not get into the books or the papers, 
that came to your knowledge in your intercourse with him during the try- 
ing hours of the Rebellion.' He said, 'Abraham Lincoln was a great man; 
great in the largest sense. He seemed equal to every exigency of the ex- 
traordinary struggle through which we passed. He seemed in touch with 
every soldier in the field, and to know the movement of every regiment, 
and his broad comprehension of military affairs astounded me.' 

"The Secretary then took me to the window that looked out toward 
the White House. (This was the old War Office). He said, 'Night after 
night, during the dark days of 18(32, and before the Emancipation Procla- 
mation was issued, the President would come over to the War Office in his 
slippers and in an old fashioned gown he had, and remain with me some- 
times very late at night talking over the situation. I remonstrated with 
him for this, saying that it was dangerous for him to come and go alone 
at night, that he should not do it, and I would have to put guards around 
him. He said, with a weary smile, 'Oh! no, Stanton, nobody would kill 
me, I haven't an enemy in the world.' ('Alas,' said the Secretary, 'an as- 
sassin was found for this peerless man, even in the glory of his triumph'). 
The only weakness that I had ever noticed in the President, if weakness 
.vou may call it, was at times when he was exceedingly depressed in spirits, 
lie had, with all his ability, that joyous, jolly nature which sometimes led 
him to excess of mirth; and perhaps to such natures reactions of sadness 
and grief always come; but be that as it may, there were times in the 
dark hours when the President would put his arms about me, throw his 
head upon my shoulder and weep, 'Oh,' he said, 'Stanton, can't we stop 
this slaughter of noble men ; can't we stop this desolation of the households 
of our land and yet save our country?' 'You can now understand,' said 
the Secretary, looking at me, 'why Mr. Lincoln would never let us hang a 
deserter or punish anybody who had violated the rules of war with the 
extreme penalty; his heart was so tender.' 

THE EMANCIPATION PllOCLAMATION. 
"But," I said, "Mr. Stanton, you spoke of the dark days before the 
Emancipation Proclamation. Why was that so long delayed? The Re- 
bellion had been in progress about a year and a half, and it always 
seemed to me that the proclamation should have been made at the com- 
mencement of the struggle so as to have weakened the enemy at their 
homes and in their domestic affairs at the threshold." 



160 HAMILTON WARD. 

"Well," he said, "I thought so, too. I entered the War Office as you 
know in the winter of 1862, and from that time on to September the war 
dragged, the results were discouraging, foreign intervention was threat- 
ened; and in the spring of that year I began to talk to the President about 
proclaiming freedom to the slaves as a war measure. I had a number of 
interviews with him; I pointed out to him that foreign intervention was 
imminent; that Louis Napoleon, then Emperor of France, and the govern- 
ment of Great Britain, had formed an unmistakable alliance to assist in 
every way, short of an open rupture with us, the rebels in their scheme 
to overthrow this government. In fact the crowned heads of Europe, 
dreading the example of a successful republic here, were secretly hoping 
and privately plotting in the same direction. Organs of the government 
in Prance and in England were openly saying that the war in America 
was not for the Union, but that the North was fighting for power and the 
South for independence; that the freedom of the slaves was not involved 
in the controversy and therefore intervention on behalf of the South was 
not an intervention in behalf of slavery, as the National Government pro- 
tected slavery as well as the Southern, States. I pointed out to him the 
folly of permitting the three millions of slaves to be indifferent to the fate 
of the Union, because the Union offered them not freedom but slavery, 
and that the conclusion to which they would naturally come would be that 
their safety and best interests consisted in remaining with their masters 
and loyal to them; that if the slaves were free we could make them avail- 
able as soldiers and very useful in the hot regions of the South, where we 
needed friends the most. I urged such other considerations upon him as 
I thought proper, but he was immovable. He finally said to me that the 
country was not ready for so radical a step; that a large portion of the 
Democratic party at the North were insisting that the war was not being 
waged for the preservation of the Union but for the abolition of slavery; 
that in many portions of the North there was a strong slavery feeling, 
especially on the border; that in border States themselves there were many 
loyal men who were fighting in our armies, and a strong sentiment for the 
Union in many places of which would be utterly obliterated if the procla- 
mation was issued. And he finally put his hand upon my shoulder and 
said: 'Don't talk to me any more about it, Stanton, for the present. We 
•must wait until the time is ripe;' and the weary spring months passed and 
the summer months passed. We had some successes, but on the whole the 
war was more disastrous than successful to us. Public sentiment had 
forced an early advance upon Richmond; the Seven Days' Fight before 
Richmond had occurred in the latter part of June and the fore part of 
July, and the Union army had retreated; Shiloh had been fought, and Mal- 
vern Hill and Fair Oaks; Lee had won his victory at Manassas on Au- 



A NIGHT WITH STANTON AT THE WAR OFFICE. IGl 

gust 30th at the very doors of the Capitol. September came; the fight 
had been transferred from the gates of Richmond to the borders of the 
Northern States. In August a draft had been ordered for three hundred 
thousand men; South Mountain was fought on the 14th of September, and 
on the 17th of September Antietam was fought with doubtful results, and 
the Army of the Potomac, instead of capturing Richmond, had receded 
to the field of Antietam and fought an uncertain battle on the very border 
of the free States.' 

''The Secretary paced up and down his room in silence for a few mo- 
ments, as though recalling the memories of that momentous period. He 
said, *I was more discouraged after xVntietam than at any other period, 
and the future seemed more obscure to me then than at any previous time. 
Rut I kept on my daily work, and on the 22nd of September, 1862, I had 
a sudden and peremptory call to a Cabinet meeting at the White House. 
They did not usually require me to attend those meetings, as my duties 
were so exacting. I had to be constantly at my post, and it was only on 
rare and important occasions that I was called to such meetings. I went 
immediately to the White House, entered the room and found the historic 
War Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln assembled, every member being present. 
The President hardly noticed me as I came in. He was reading a book 
of some kind which seemed to amuse him. It was a little book. He 
finally turned to us and said. Gentlemen, did you ever read anything from 
Artemus Ward? Let me read you a chapter that is very funny. Not a 
member of the Cabinet smiled; as for myself I was angry, and looked to 
see what the President meant. It seemed to me like buffoonery. He, 
however, concluded to read us a chapter from Artemus Ward, which he 
did with great deliberation, and having finished, laughed heartily, without 
a member of the Cabinet joining in the laughter. 'Well,' he said, 'let's 
have another chapter,' and he read another chapter to our great astonish- 
ment. I was considering whether I should arise and leave the meeting 
abruptly and renew my duties, when he threw his book down, heaved a 
long sigh, and said: 'Gentleman, why don't you laugh? With the fearful 
strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die; anid 
you need this medicine as much as I do.' He then put his hand in his tall 
hat that sat upon the table and pulled out a little paper. Turning to the 
members of the Cabinet, he said: 'Gentlemen, I have called you here upon 
very important business. I have prepared a little paper of much signifi- 
cance. I have made up my mind that this paper is to issue; that the time 
has come when it should issue; that the people are ready for it to issue. 
It is due to my Cabinet that you should be the first to hear and know of it; 
and if any of you have any suggestions to make as to the the form of this 
paper or its composition, I shall be glad to hear them; but the paper is to 



162 HAMILTON WARD. 

issue.' "And to my astonishment," said the Secretary, "he read the 
Emancipation Proclamation of that date, which was to take effect the 
first of January following, containing the vital provision that on January 
1, 18G3, "All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State, the people whereof shall be then im x-ebellion against the United 
States, shall be then henceforward and forever free." And the Secretary, 
turning to me, smiled and said: 'I have always tried to be calm, but I 
think I lost my calmness for a moment, and with great enthusiasm I arose, 
approached the President, extended my hand and said, 'Mr. Presient, if 
reading of chapters of Artemus Ward is a prelude to such a deed as this, 
the book should be filed among the archives of the nation, and the author 
should be canonized. Henceforth I see the light, and the country is 
saved.' and the Cabinet said, 'Amen.' And Lincoln said to me in a droll 
way, just as I was leaving, 'Stanton, it would have been too early last 
spring.' And as I look back upon it I think the President was right." 

"You know," said Judge Ward, "the effect of this. It effectually 
prevented the intervention of foreign powers; because, had they intervened 
after that in behalf of the South they would have been espousing the 
cause of slavery, and the tradition of the British people and the freedom- 
loving masses of Great Britain and France put their hands upon their 
governments and said, 'there must be no intervention against the Union 
that would free the slaves.' "You remember, too," said the Judge, "how 
after that, victories came almost from every battlefield and how the course 
of the Rebellion was downward and downward as though God smiled upon 
our cause, until the sword of Lee was surrendered to Grant at Appomat- 
tox, and the nation was saved." 

Mr. Ward's estimate of Stanton is perhaps best shown 
by a letter written by him in December, 1869, congratu- 
lating Stanton on his appointment to the United States 
Supreme Court by President Grant. 

Belmont, N. Y., Dec. 21st, 1869. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton: 

Dear Sir: — I must congratulate the President upon the honor he has 
done himself in tendering to you the vacant place on the Supreme Bench. 
No act of his since his accession to the Presidency has so much rejoiced 
the hearts of the loyal millions of this country as that. It will add no ad- 
ditional luster to your name; no position the nation can give will do that, 
but it will redeem the Administration and the Republican party from the 
charge of ingratitude under which it certainly would be should they in no 
fitting manner recognize the deep obligation which they and our whole 
country owe to Edwin M. Stanton. 



IX CONGRESS. 103 

I hope you will accept; we need you in the Court as we needed you 
in the Cabinet, and may God in his mercy strengthen and preserve you 
to us and to your country for many years to come. 
Truly your friend, 

HAMILTON WARD. 

All loyal men watched the course of events with ab- 
sorbing- interest and considered and discussed every plan 
and change. The old Puritanical spirit possessed the peo- 
ple, as the following letter written by a leading Republican 
of Wellsville. Allegany County, N. Y., shows : 

Wellsville, Feb. 12th, 1868. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward: 

Your favor came safe to hand and was thankfully received. I have 
read it with the greatest satisfaction. I am a man of few words— never 
say much as you know — I have never said anything to try to flatter you — 
but I must say that I have been proud of our member the whole time that 
you have been in Washington. I find we have got more than we bargained 
for when, we elected you. I have feared that the question of impeach- 
ment might be smuggled up and passed by with very little or nothing 
done or said about it, and that the most unprincipled wretch that ever 
disgraced the White House, the deceiver of all loyal men, the enemy of 
his country, the friend of all rebels, the chief of hypocrites who has been 
determined to rule or ruin — but since reading your speech, as St. Paul 
said on a certain occasion, "I thank God and take courage." I thank God 
that at least one man has been raised up and endowed with wisdom and 
the faculty to express his thoughts and moral courage, to speak forth the 
words of truth and soberness — "to make Felix tremble" — to show him that 
he has taken no "part or lot" in the administration of justice, that he is in 
the "gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity," that he is leagued with Cop- 
perheads and rebels, that he is the "enemy of all righteousness and child of 
the devil," that not only the 8.000 blackhearted wretches that he has par- 
doned but himself also ought to have been hung higher than Hamen was 
and himself the highest of all. I hope the subject of impeachment will 
be followed up until Andy, like Nebuchaduessor, shall be driven from 
office, from power and from all loyal men, and take his place among the 
Southern rebels where he belongs. "By their fruit ye shall know them;" 
let his name go down to posterity like Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscarlot. 
And now my friend I would willingly say something to encourage 
you if I could, but you know without my saying it that every loyal man 
and woman in tho country will sustain you in the course you are pur- 



164 HAMILTON WARD. 

suing. Your speeches are read and appreciated by a large number of 
women who have Copperhead husbands; you have the prayers of all the 
truly pious and the good wishes of all loyal people. Allegany County is 
proud of her Ward. She regards him as the right man in the right place 
— as the friend of the poor and oppressed — the benefactor of his race — 
as one of the fathers of his country, and in his official capacity as the 
Servant of God. And now my friend continue to stand up for the truth — 
the truth is mighty and must and will prevail. The earth calleth upon 
the truth— the Heaven blesseth it and all works of wickedness shake and 
tremble at it— raise your voioe against wickedness in high places— teach 
wrong doers that they are not out of reach of law and of justice — Anyway 
God bless you and preserve your life and health and make you an instru- 
ment in executing his will, for which purpose I trust he has raised you up. 
RespectfuHv yours, 

LEWIS JAMES. 

While maintaining his position as opposed to all ques- 
tionable claims, and insisting that all claims go before 
committees, a difficult position v/ith this and the few suc- 
ceeding Congresses, nevertheless when a soldier's interest 
was involved he was disposed to be generous and on March 
1 6, 1868, he strenuously advocated a bill appropriating the 
sum of $15,000.00 for the relief of General Anderson, who 
had so gallantly defended Fort Sumpter and who was then 
an invalid. 

On the nth of May, 1868, Mr. Ward introduced a joint 
resolution for the purchase of a full heighth portrait of Ab- 
raham Lincoln, which was referred to the Library Com- 
mittee. 

It may be proper in this connection to state what Mr. 
Ward has said about Mrs. Lincoln. After Lincoln's death 
a resolution was introduced providing for the almost com- 
plete refurnishing of the White House, including linen, etc. 
Mr. Ward instantly objected on the ground of economy, 
asking if Lincoln's furniture was not good enough for John- 
son. Thadius Stevens asked him in a whisper to withdraw 
his objection, and upon his refusing, explained that Mrs. 
Lincoln had stripped the White House, and that it was bet- 
ter to submit to it than to create a national scandal. The 
objection was withdrawn. However it should be remem- 



IN COXGKESS 1SG8. 1G5 

bered that much of the spoilation of the White House was 
done by relic hunters, even the carpets being cut to pieces 
by them. 

The constant strain and anxiety of Congressional life 
were not always pleasing to Mr. Ward, a sensitive, impres- 
sionable man, and at times he became somewhat disheart- 
ened. 

On May i8th, 1868, he wrote the following letter to 
Col. Rufus Scott, who resided at Belmont, and who had dis- 
tinguished himself in the army. 

Washington, D. C, May 18, 1868. 
Dear Col: 

1 must congratulate you upon your early admission to the bar. You 
are enabled to sue or be sued now, and I wish you a long and successful 
professional career. 

I shall be with you in a few weeks and resume the practice of the 
profession. It will be a glad day to me when I shall take my seat again 
in my office, no longer to be disturbed by the hollowness, the care and the 
ingratitude of political life. A few weeks next winter will be the only 
interruption and will be but a holiday. 

I suppose I might go back to Congress again, but I shrink from the 
contest. I hate any longer to be the lickspittle of the crowd. The whole 
power of the administration will be arrayed against me, seventy or eighty 
P. M.'s, the Collector and Assessor and all the money that will be needed 
to corrupt the venal, pack caucuses and conventions. All kinds of lies 
will be told about me and every means resorted to to secure a Johnson 
man in my place, a man of easy political virtue, a man that can be man- 
aged to let the rebels in and to maintain "my policy." 

The people, Go<l bless them, are right in the main, but amidst false 
issues, false leaders and representatives they will be humbugged and 
wheedled at the caucuse.«« and at the polls, besides a host of ambitious 
men will spring up to take advantage of the condition for their own pur- 
poses; notwithstanding all that I beheve I could win by making the whole 
field ring with the battle, but the game is not worth the powder — so let 
it go. 

This I write you as confidential. 

I see much trouble in tho future. I do not know but more scars are 
yet to be made — more blood shod. 

Wg shall see. 

Truly your friend, 

HAMILTON WARD. 



166 HAMILTON WARD. 

About this time the impeachment trial was concluded 
and Andrew Johnson was acquitted by securing one vote 
more than the necessary one third. 

This result, which history does not regret, as it saved 
establishing a precedent which time would make dangerous, 
and as Johnson's activities thereafter largely ceased, deeply 
disappointed Mr. Ward, and his feelings in the matter are 
best described by a letter written by him to Dr. Pratt,, a life- 
long friend and the editor of the Corning Journal, for pubH- 
cation in his paper: 

Washington, D. C. 
Saturday evening, May 16, 1868. 
Dear Pratt:— This has been a most eventful day in the history of the 
Republic. It has witnessed the basest betrayal of the cause of liberty and 
justice since the fall of Benedict Arnold. Those who fired on Sumpter 
and drove back in confusion our scattered hosts at Bull Run, did it boldly 
and manfully and with notice of their intention to all the world, but the 
seven recreants who to-day by vile combinations with Copperheads and 
rebel sympathisers in the Senate basely defeated the conviction of An- 
drew Johnson on the 11th article have stabbed in the back "aye in the dark, 
too," the men with whom they had acted, the cause they have espoused 
and the country they had sworn to defend; secretly have they acted with 
all the guile of the serpent and the craft of the demagogues; deceiving the 
loyal men in the Senate to the last moment, acting as spies upon all their 
councils and constantly betraying them to Johnson and his creatures. We 
now well understand why the President all along was so confident, why 
his blackleg supporters staked vast sums upon his acquittal. Why he 
dared in the first place to violate the law by the removal of Stanton, 
why the New York World unblushingly proposed to capitalists to raise 
millions of dollars to buy up Senators. Why leading office holders have 
been here in force, who hold fat offices, that they can pay well to keep. 
Why the whiskey ring who are robbing the country, by having the con- 
trol of the administration and its officers of one hundred millions of reve- 
nue annually, have been here in force all along (as it is rumored) with 
millions on deposit; all is apparent, clear, as the noon day sun. All along 
Johnson has known his men; to him they were free to communicate their 
views; to the loyal Senators and members they were silent and mysterious, 
calling themselves "Judges," talking about their "oaths," their "con- 
sciences," and that they "could form no opinion until the case was sub- 
mitted." 



IN CONGRESS 1SG8. Itu 

The result is mainly attiil)ut:ib!o to the groat organizing power and 
vindictiveness of one man, a man whom we have trusted, whose duty it 
was under the constitution to preside in the "high court of impeach- 
ment." I need not mention the name of Chief Justice Chase. The mass 
of the party trusted him and forced him upon the Supreme Bench. A few 
only knew him as an ambitious, hollow hearted demagogue. Mr. Lincoln 
had great repugnance to appointing him Chief Justice but he felt con- 
strained by a great public pressure to do so. Then Chase resumed his 
echeming for the Presidency, which had so disturbed the first administra- 
tion of Lincoln. He visited the South, made speeches to the negroes, sent 
his emissaries all over the country, to organize for him, and professed to 
be the quintessence of radicalism. When Grant was proposed for the 
office. Chase was doubtful of Grant; was afraid he could not be trusted, 
that ho drank too much. But Grant was the idol of the people. State 
after State spoke out for him and it was evident that his star would 
eclipse all others at the National Convention, and the Chief Justice saw 
nothing before him but defeat and disaster. Then the life-long political 
mountebank was unmasked. Then came the thought of vengeance; in a 
moment he was transformed from an intense radical to a cold conserva- 
tive and turned his back upon friends who had made him what he is, and 
the principles that he had so long professed, and we soon heard mysteri- 
ous hints of his design to use the Supreme Court to overthrow the recon- 
struction laws of Congress. In the midst of this undeveloped plot another 
opportunity occurs to him to gratify his malice. The President, at last, 
after long and painful delays, is impeached by the House of Representa- 
tives, and the matter sent to the Senate for trial. Chase believed tliat 
the conviction of Johnson would aid the Republicans in electing Grant. 
He knew it would result in making honest Ben Wade President until the 
fourth of March. Wade, whom he hated with all the venom that a crafty 
knave feels for an honest man who stands in his way and exposes his 
duplicity. Wade knew him, despised him, and in his true, manly nature, 
shrank from him. Chase could not endure the thought that his honest 
rival should clutch even for a few months the prize that he had lost; and 
so commenced a seri(>s of nianoeuvers and intrigues such as would disgrace 
even a barbarous country. Chase assumes powers that the Constitution 
does not give him while presiding at the trial. He assumed to decide, in 
the place of the Senate, questions of evidence as they arose and when the 
court was equally divided he presumed to give the casting vote. Splendid 
dinners were given at his mansion to which certain Senators were invited; 
they took long drives with him into the country. "The Chief Justice" could 
find no law to convict the President; he was constantly trying to convince 
Senators of that. Trumbull, Fesseuden, Grimes and Henderson were in 



168 HAMILTON WARD. 

turn played upon, each having the medicine best adapted to him, and they 
were informed that if impeachment succeeded, the radicals would control 
the next two administrations, and that they, the honest and far-seeing 
conservatives, would be ignored and forgotten, and that they must kill 
impeachment or be killed themselves. Fessenden was reminded that Wade 
had been lifted to the place so coveted by Fessenden by the action of the 
Senate, All that infernal ingenuity could devise, this ambitious man did; 
moulding his willing instruments the way I have indicated and by such 
other means as was necessary. The time may come and I believe it will, 
when all the rottenness of this transaction will be laid bare, and when the 
grand central figure of the whole conspiracy will stand out unmasked, at 
last, to the detestation and scorn of all mankind. Other base instrumen- 
tality aided in this work; vile women played their brazen part. Contrac- 
tors whose power secured Senators their seats were active agents. Rum 
in gilded saloons, and at social boards, was passed freely round by taper- 
ing fingers and jeweled hands, to swell the debauch and help the work of 
crime. How much of sordid pelf soiled honorable palms, and who, if any, 
mortgaged life and soul for money, the conspirators themselves know best; 
each man will form an opinion for himself upon the subject. The fate 
of reconstruction, the prospective murder of thousands of Unionists in the 
South, the further derangement of business affairs, the continuation of the 
dangerous criminal at the White House in power, the peril in which it 
placed the Republic, the unanimous and earnest demand of the Union 
party for conviction, were considerations that ought to have warned those 
Senators to another course, but they defied all these considerations for base 
and unworthy motives. 

"Oh for a tongue to curse the Slave, 
"Whose treason like a deadly blight, 
"Comes o'er the counsels of the brave, 
"And blasts them in their hour of might." 

But this infamous scheme will not succeed; it will not defeat recon- 
struction, elevate Chase to the Presidency, defeat Grant, destroy the 
Union party or break up the Government, as intended by its authors. Thou- 
sands of good men at the South will be sent to bloody graves, the country 
will be agitated from center to circumference, industry will be paralyzed 
the finances depressed and disordered, until the apostate's term these in- 
grates have saved expires. But from this hour there wil go forth a voice 
from the great people that shall be heard throughout the land, calling 
again its children to battle for the right, to organize in every town, city 
and hamlet, for the great campaign before us; the same voice that startled 
the nation when the cannon boomed at Fort Sumpter, the same voice that 



THIRD NOMINATION. 1G9 

was lifted up in lamentation when Lincoln died; the voice of the Union 
masses, ever true to liberty and justice, who though betrayed and aban- 
doned, time and again by the men they trusted, are still firm in the faith 
that a free Government can be preserved by a free people. Let there bo 
no faltering now, no faint hearts, no yielding to despair. Let us close up 
the ranks and move on undismayed, for "eternal vigilance is the price of 
liberty." And under the banner of him who led our armies to victory 
when embattled treason sought the nation's life, we will, with God's bless- 
ing crush out this new and baser treason and restore our afflicted country 
to security and peace. 

I trust you will pardon the great length of this letter; my only apol- 
ogy is the great importance of the subject matter. 

Truly your friend, X. 

The Congressional campaign in 1868 began early and 
much opposition to Mr. Ward's return for a third term was 
manifested, especially in Chemung County. The custom 
for years in this district had been to give the Congressmen 
two terms and no more, and that the three counties in the 
district, Allegany, Steuben and Chemung should take the 
office in turn. This custom had a strong hold on the minds 
of the people and was difficult to overcome. Chemung 
claimed that she was entitled to the Congressman and 
finally settled on General Gregg, a soldier, as her candidate, 
Mr. Ward's friends in the county being overborne by the 
appeal to the custom just mentioned. 

Allegany County was unanimously for Mr. Ward. 

The following is a report of the County Convention 
of July I St, 1868, from the Allegany Radical, published at 
Belmont: 

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. 

The Republican County Convention of this county met in the Court 
House at Belmont on Wednesday, July 1. A full representation from 
nearly every town in the county was present. The Convention was called 
to order by the chairman of the Central Committee, Gen. Rufus Scott, 
and Major Withy of Wirt was elected chairman, and Dr. Saunders of 
Belfast, and Col. Fisk of the Free Press, were elected secretaries. While 
the secretaries were preparing the list of delegates, Hon. Hamilton Ward 
was called for and responded in an appropriate and eloquent speech of 



170 HAMILTON WARD. 

twenty or thirty minutes, vindicating the radical Congress, discussing the 
financial question, and declaring the principles of the Republican party 
strongly entrenched in the hearts of the people. AVith Grant and Colfax for 
our standard bearers, we were sure to win the day. His speech was en- 
thusiastically applauded throughout its delivery. 

On motion of Mr. L. D. Davis, a committee of five was appointed, 
expressive of the sentiments of the Convention. In accordance with that 
motion the following resolutions were presented: 

Resolved, That the Republicans of Allegany county adhere with un- 
faltering faith to the great principles upon which the party was founded, 
and will enter the coming political campaign with the determination to 
sustain those principles by an increased majority at the polls at the next 
election. 

2nd, Resolved, That in our nominees, the heroic Grant, and the 
earnest and faithful Colfax, we have men worthy of support as the faithful 
representatives of those principles, and we most cordially endorse the plat- 
form upon which they have been placed by the National Convention at 
Chicago. 

3d, Resolved, That the course of our Representative in Congress, the 
Hon. Hamilton Ward, fully meets our approval, and we hereby request 
the delegates this day elected to use all honorable means to secure his re- 
nomination to Congress. 

L. D. DAVIS, 

A. LOCKHART, 

E. B. CRANDALL, 

J. W. HOYT, 

L. B. FREEMAN, 

Committee. 
The following named persons were chosen delegates to attend the 
State and Congressional Conventions 

State Delegates — Hon. Silas Richardson, James S. Green, Rodrick 
Stebbins. 

Congressional Delegates— Rufus Colwell, Alfred Lockhart, L. D. 
Davis, A. C. Hall, Joel Karr, William Van Ostrand. 

Steuben County favored Mr. Ward's renomination, and 
the party leaders and the press were for him. 

General Gregg made as much of a fight as he could in 
Steuben with the assistance of certain soldiers who thought 
they should have a soldier candidate, and with the sympathy 
of the few Johnson followers, but without result, both As- 



THIRD NOMINATION. 171 

semblv districts in Steuben County being- carried for Mr. 
Ward.' 

One of the amusing incidents of the campaign is set 
forth in an interesting letter from the famous F. G. Steb- 
bins, editor of the Cuba Patriot, which is as follows : 

Office of Cuba Free Patriot, 
Cuba, N. Y., July 22, 1868. 
Friend Ward:— 

I have had fun! I had it yesterday afternoon and I laughed all night 
to such an extent that Mrs. S. (who by the way is a staid, quiet, "old" 
lady) thought I had surely gone demented. I am laughing yet; I still feel 
jolly. When or where the fit will end is at present in the womb of futurity. 
But gushingly I say "Let her gush." A man who laughs much and often 
never commits murder. At this rate I wouldn't kill a June bug if he was 
feeding on my sweet potato vines. I'll tell you what's the matter. Monday 
General Gregg was here in Cuba. I didn't see him but I smelled a big 
mice. Yesterday just before train time I smelled out said mice. A meet- 
ing was to be held at Hornellsville on that day (Tuesday), a meeting of 
"soldiers and sailors" to take into consideration the propriety of running 
a "soldiers' and sailors" candidate for Congress. 

Stebbins rushed for the cars. Stebbins was not only a soldier but a 
sailor— and why not? \^'asn't he drafted? And didn't he report promptly, 
and had'nt he sailed the raging Genesee Valley Canawl? 

I took the postal car to better watch the proceedings. At Belvidere 
another brave "soldier" and "patriot," oh yes a first class patriot, got on 
the train. That man was one, John "Wrong," ex-sheriff of this county. I 
met Col. Fisk at Wellsville and Hi Coats. They had just got wind of the 
affair. We all then got into the baggage car and watched. At Andover 
there were gi-eat inquiries for "Ira, Ira, Ira Cutler," by John F., but Ira 
had gone away, so said the depot agent. 

Arriving at Hornellsville we found Gregg, Irvine, about half a dozen 
soreheads and some two dozen Copperheads. I was asked to take a drink. 
"Certainly, said I, but I am not a Democrat, although I sometimes have 
the d est symptoms of one in the world. This is one of the symp- 
toms," said I as I put down a small slug of corn juice. 

Some one asked me if I was a soldier, rather hinting that I had no 

right there. "Ho, sir," said I, "I am not a soldier but I am a d d 

good sailor and I want it understood distinctly that I represent Western 
Allegany." That got up a shout from your friends, of whom you had sev- 
eral, if not more. Directly I had an introduction to General Gregg. "Gen- 
eral," said I, as I shook hands, "What in h 11 are you doing here." 



172 HAMILTON WARD. 

Then for an hour he labored with me telling me his grievances. I gave 
him my advice in a few words: "Keep out of this or you are dead as 
damnation and no resurrection." I told him further that if he ran we would 
give him Chemung by 1500, and If that was not enough let him tie us in 
Steuben and then old Allegany would knock the skillets of • • ♦ ont 
of him. He only remarked that he was in the hands of his friends. His 
friends! I asked him if he called such damned Copperheads his friends. 
He asked me, "What can a man do if he is run over?" I told him that 
was a good conundrum, but I couldn't answer dt. But if I were the man 
I would have kept out of the way of the engine when the bell rung. 

Capt, Canfield and Cole were there working quietly outside for you. 
That ain't my way. I always buz around and throw cold water jokingly, 
sarcastically and yet earnestly plump in their faces. And you can bet I 
did with good effect. The consequences of what we all done in our several 
ways were that the meeting didn't accomplish anything. But two or three 
of them quietly got together and quietly adjourned to Corning the 12th of 
August to further consider the matter. On that occasion Steb. will ba 
there with the "soldiers" and "sailors." 

Chet Cole is working through, in his quiet way, like a beaver io 
Steuben. You must reward him sometimes if there 4s an opening. 

Through a third party (one of Gregg's friends) the General wanta 
six hundred dollars worth of the True Patriot. He wUl get it In a verj 
large horn. 

Barnes of the Bath paper and, I mistrust, the Horaellsville Time* 
are bidding. Don't offer them anything to retain them. Let them go to 
bell, for I am perfectly confident that no raid of suflBcient magnitude cao 
be inaugurated to beat you. Write me. 
Yours truly, 

F. G. STEBBINS. 

P. S. Tell Colfax that the Cuba True Patriot came within one of 
getting him nominated for the Presidency. Therefore when he is inau- 
gurated as Vice I shall expect that "little" appointment, sure. 

STEBBINS. 

It was this same Stebbins who was later ap- 
pointed Consul to the now famous Manilla. The night he 
arrived, and while still on board ship, an earthquake de- 
stroyed a portion of the city, whereupon without disembark- 
ing, "Steb," as he was called, returned to the United States 
and sacrificed his "little" appointment. 

The Congressional Convention met in Corning, Steu- 
ben County on July 14th, 1868, and the Elmira Advertiser 
of the next day describes it as follows: 



THIRD NOMINATION. 173 

THE CONGRESSIONAL CONVENTION. 



Withdrawal of the Chemung County Delegates. 
Nomination of Mr. Ward. 



The Republican Congressional Convention for Chemung, Steuben and 
Allegany met at Corning yesterday, and was called to order by Dr. George 
W. Pratt, chairman of the Congressional Committee, on whose motion 
the Hon. Daniel B. Bryan, of Steuben, was made chairman of the Con- 
vention, and R. R. Colewell of Allegany and S. Kellogg of Steuben were 
appointed secretaries. 

Credentials were presented by the following people, who took seats 
in the Convention. 

Allegany— Rufus Colewell, Alfred Lockhart, L. D. Davis, Edwin S. 
Bruce, Joel Karr, Rufus Scott. 

Chemung — Daniel F. Pickering, Will Irving, Alonzo Banks, George 
W. Buck. 

Steuben: 1st Diet.— Edwin R. Kasson, D. B. Bryan, J. H. Butler, 
A. J. Switzer. 

2nd Dist.— Harlo Hakes, C. H. Erwin, John Towle, Silas Kellogg, 
C. S. Cole. 

The following resolutions were presented by Mr. Pickering: 

Resolved, That pursuant to the common assent of the Convention of 
1864 and that of the convention of 1866, the candidate to be put in nomin- 
ation by this Convention be accorded to the County of Chemung, upon a 
selection to be unanimuosly made by the delegation from that county. 

Resolved, That Hon. Hamilton Ward, having been generously ac- 
corded two successive terms, it is the duty of his friends to waive his 
claims to a third nomination. 

Gen. Irvine addressed the Convention at length in favor of the adop- 
tion of the resolutions, and was followed in an argument by Mr. D. F. 
Pickering on the same side. 

Harlo Hakes of Steuben replied in a capital and well timed speech 
and was followed by Alfred Lockhart of Allegany on the same side. 

Mr. J. H. Butler of Steuben then moved that the resolution be laid 
on the table, which was carried, the delegates from Steuben and Allegany 
voting in the affirmative, and those from Chemung in the negative. 

The Chairman declared the motion to lay on the table carried, where- 
upon Mr. Irving, Mr. Pickering and Mr. Banks withdrew from the Con- 
vention. Mr. Buck was absent. 

The Convention then took a recess for ten minutes. On re-assembling 
the Convention proceeded to vote for a candadite for Representative in 
Congress. The Hon. Hamilton Ward received the vote of each delegate 
from Steuben and Allegany— fifteen in all. The delegates from Chemung 



174 HAMILTON WARD. 

having withdrawn, no other candidate was voted for. Mr. Ward was de- 
clared the nominee of the Convention. 

The Convention was then addressed by the following gentlemen: 
Luther Caldwell, C, G. Fairman, John I. Nicks, G. L. Smith and H. M. 
Partridge, who assured the convention of their support of the candidate and 
expressed their confidence that the Republicans of this county wolld do 
likewise. 

Gen. Gregg also briefly addressed the Convention, saying he was in 
the hands of his delegation and would do as they did. 

On motion, John Towles, Alfred Lockhart and Harlow Hakes were 
appointed a Comittee to wait on Mr. Ward, and inform him of his nomina- 
tion, and invite him to address the Convention. After a short absence they 
returned, accompanied by Mr. Ward, who, having announced his accept- 
ance of the nomination, proceeded to address the Convention in an elo- 
Quet and able speech. 

It will be seen that Mr. Ward's old friends in Chemung 
County stood by him in spite of the withdrawal of the Gregg 
delegation. 

The National Body of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Asso- 
ciation, knowing Mr. Ward's record in Congress, disap- 
proved the action of Gen. Gregg and his followers, and on 
July 24th the following letter was received by General Crane, 
a member of the Association, and a resident of the 27th 
Congressional District: 

Gen. N. M. Crane, Hornellsville, N. Y.: 

Dear Sir — Information has been received at these Headquarters, that 
an attempt is being made to aiTay the soldiers of your District against 
the Hon. Hamilton Ward, the Republican nominee for Congress, and that 
a Convention of soldiers has been called for the 12th of August, to nominate 
an independent candidate. 

In the absence of Gen. Chipman, the Secretary, I take the liberty of 
advising you, as the Representative of the Twenty-seventh Congressional 
District, on the New York Soldiers and Sailors' State Central Committee, 
to use your best efforts to prevent this scheme, as it is in direct conflict 
with the Resolutions of the Soldiers and Sailors' National Convention, 
held at Chicago, May 19th, pledging the Soldiers and Sailors to support 
the Republican Party, which they cannot do without sustaining the nom- 
inee of the party. 

No good reason exists for this crusade against Mr. Ward, as he was 
regularly and fairly nominated on the 14th inst., by the Repblican Con- 
vention of the 27th District, and if persisted in, will distract the party and 



THIRD COXGIiESSlONAL CAMPAIGN 18(J8. 175 

injure the State aud Presideutial ticket, and no Soldier or Sailor, who is 
anxious to render the State good service, and interested in the success of 
the Republican party will, I am satisfied, join in this movement, on the 
contrary, will give his aid and support to Mr. Ward, as he is a competent 
legislator, a sound and unflinching Republican, and good friend of the 
Soldiers, always suporting an dtidvocating a just recognition of their claims 
before Congress. 

It is to be hoped. General, that such action may be inimeditely taken 
as will completely neutralize the effects, among the "Boys in Blue," of this 
contemplated Convention. 

Very respectfully your obdt. scrvt., 

W. A. SHORT, 
Assistant Secretary. 



I concur in the foregoing, and eancstly hope no action of the Soldiers 
of your District will be had, that will militate against the success of Re- 
publican candidates. Any distraction upon local candidates must necessar- 
ily injure the general and State ticket. 

H. A. BARNUM, Chairman. 

At a so-called "Soldiers and Sailors" Congressional 
Convention, held in Elmira, on Aug. 12th, General Gregg 
was nominated for Congress, speeches being made by sev- 
eral ex-army men in opposition to Mr. Ward and a third 
term. 

General Gregg was not however a factor in the cam- 
paign which followed and received no votes. 

On Oct. loth, 1868, Col. C. C. Gardiner was nominated 
by the Democrats. One of the most interesting incidents 
of the campaign was the part taken in it by the Rev. Thomas 
K. Beecher, the leading minister of Elmira, a man of more 
than local reputation and a brother of the famous Henry 
Ward Beecher. He edited a department in the Elmira Ad- 
vertiser, called the Saturday Miscellany, and in this depart- 
ment, under date of Oct. 9th, the following appeared: 

OUR QUESTIONS. 

We said last week that Mr. Ward should bo questioned. We did not 
say that a discussion was desirable. That an agent should give account 
to his principal is too plain to need assertion. That a principal may ques- 
tion his agent upon any and all matters connected with his agency is obvi- 
ously just and proper. And if the agent be sulky or silent or prevaricating. 



176 HAMILTON WARD. 

then the principal may discharge him or bear with him, as he may see 
best. 

Every one linows that Mr. Ward is an extreme Republican. No one 
need have curiosity to hear what he will say in a speech, for he will say 
nothing new upon the general issues of the canvass. The matters upon 
which he can enlighten and instruct us, he will probably never allude to 
unless questioned. So here are some questions which every man in the 
county would like to hear answered — every man in the county except thirty 
or forty politicians, so-called: 

Mr. Ward, what is the salary paid to a member of Congress? 

What mileage are you accustomed to charge? How many times have 
you collected mileage during the four years that you have been in Congress? 

Of what committees are you a member in the present Congress? 

How many hours a day do your duties as Congressman keep you busy? 

Is your salary and mileage as Congressman sufficient for your sup- 
port? 

Have you attended to other business as a lawyer, claim agent or pub- 
lic speaker since your election as member of Congress? 

Have your elections hitherto cost you anything personally over and 
above the cost of printing tickets and your share of the ordinary election 
expenses to which all citizens openly conti'ibute? 

Are you a member of the Congressional Temperance Society? 

Is the drinking of spirits by our Congressmen increasing or diminish- 
ing in Washington? 

Does your position at any time seem to compel you to "treat" or seem 
ill-natured? 

Do you feel that your services in Congress have so taken you from 
your home and your profession, that some compensation is due you from 
your fellow citizens because of losses thus incurred? 

And further: — 

Mr. Ward, about how many federal offices are there in our district? 

In how many of them do the emoluments exceed five hundred dollars 
a year? 

Have you formed any opinion as to the worthiness or unworthiness 
of the office holders now "on duty"? 

So far as appointments depend upon your recommendations, do you 
intend any considerable changes? 

Have you made any promises to any citizens to obtain office for them? 

If you have, who are they? Have they proposed making any return 
to you for services rendered? 

In short, Mr. Ward, it is reported and widely believed that you have 
perfected extensive arrangements in this district, looking to your own re- 
election, and a redistribution of federal patronage, and a triumph of the 
Republican party. As a citizen and a voter I am interested in these ques- 



THOS. K. BEECHEK EPISODE. 177 

tionp. If your election means the appointment of twenty or thirty men 
besides yourself, so that voting for you amounts to voting for them, you 
should let us know it. And by these questions you have an opportunity of 
answering without seeming to be immodest or instrusive. Were I in your 
place I should rejoice to answer any or all questions that an honest man 
could ask pertaining to my ofiicial self and my public Avork. If you have 
secrets that you will not or dare not expose, I am sorry for j'ou, and can 
only say that secret plans and pledges are dangerous luggage for any public 
man. I am yours respectfully, 

THOS. K. BEECHER. 
P. S. — If you are moved to reply to these well meant questions, I will 
..heerfully aid you in circulating your answers among the thousands of your 
constituents who will be at least curious if not earnest in expecting them. 

To this some zealous friends of Mr. Ward's replied with 
a series of questions for Air. Beecher which are good enough 
to be preserved. They are : 

What is your salary as pastor of the Congregational Church? 

How much do you make for marriages and lectures? 

How many times have you made people pay you twice for the same 
work ? 

What do you do with the money when you get it? 

How much does it cost you to live? 

Do you pay your tailor for the clothes you buy of him? 

If you were a grocer would you cheat in the measure? 

How many hours a day do your duties as pastor keep you busy? 

Do you spend your time travelling over the country delivering literary 
lectures at a hundred dollars each, when you are paid for preaching sermons 
at home? 

Have you ever done anything that was mean or dishonest? 

Are you a decent man? 

Do you believe in the hen fever? 

Did you pay for your own education, or did your father foot the bills? 

Did you ever refund the money? 

Do you ever drink ale, or whiskey? 

Is the drinking of intoxicating spirits increasing or diminishing among 
members of your profession? 

Do you ever treat people at the bar? 

Have you made any promises to any body to sell yourself for gain? 

Are you a natural born scoundrel? 



178 HAMILTON WARD. 

When you come to town do you roll down hill or walk afoot? 

In short, Mr. Beecher, it is reported and widely believed that you are 
an ale drinker and wine bibber, that you are a billiai'd player, a card 
player, and the proprietor of a ten pin alley— that you are a profane 
swearer, a trifler, a mocker, and a stumbling block generally in the way of 
Christian religion. You know, Mr. Beecher, that all these things, and more 
are said of you. Why don't you answer and refute them? You can do so 
without seeming immodest or intrusive, and your persistent silence leads 
many people to believe them true. If you have secrets that you will not or 
dare not expose, we are sorry for you, and can only say that secret plans 
and habits are dangerous luggage for any public man. 

On the 1 2th of October Mr. Beecher wrote to Mr. 
Ward as follows : 

"Dear Mr. Ward: — Mr. Langdon tolls me that you doubt somewhat 
•what my interest may have been in my recent questions addressed to you, 
and says you are quite willing to answer any and all such. 

I hasten to tell you that my only aim was and is to promote habits 
of openness, truth and perfect acquaintance between representative and 
people. Many things are spoken in secret which ought to be proclaimed 
on the house-top. My aim was to give you an opportunity when ques- 
tioned by a citizen not unknown to give answer and tell facts to your own 
advantage, which you could get before the public in no other way. 

To a series of answers to my questions I proposed giving from fifty 
to one hundred dollars and send them all through the district as Ward's 
honest answers to Beecher's honest questions. 

Read them again and if by a line I have hurt your feelings or over- 
past the bounds of propriety— I will as publicly apologize. But if possible 
give me a set of short, true and manly answers and thus help one teach the 
people. 

Yours truly, 

THOS. K. BEECHER. 

To which Mr. Ward replied at length on Oct. 19th, as 

follows ; 

"Belmont, N. Y., Oct. 19, 1868. 
Rev'd Thos. K. Beecher. 

Dear Sir:— I have received your letters of Oct. 12th and 15th. 

It gives me pleasure to respond in the spirit of your letters to such 



THOMAS K. BEECIIER EPISODE. 179 

inquiries as it seems proper to be addressed to me but for reasons I sliall 
give I cannot permit the publication of our correspondence. 

I will franlily say that I did not regard your questions first addressed 
to me through a newspaper (and several of them containing insinuations of 
improper conduct on my part) without being sent to me in the usual way, 
by mail or messenger, as one gentleman and friend usually communicates 
with another, as conceived in a friendly spirit to me or for my benefit, but 
rather to give the public an impression that there was truth in the charges 
implied in the questions. Several things occurring about that time and a 
litte before your questions appeared in the Advertiser, tended to strengthen 
this impression. 

You called upon Gen. Gregg, Dr. Beadle and others to question me 
when I came to Chemung to speak. A series of insulting questions were 
addressed to me in the Elmira Gazette containing base and false insinu- 
ations against my honor as a man which I could not notice without forfeit- 
ing my own self respect. When I got to Elmira and was speaking at a 
large meeting a boy handed me what he said was a telegram, enveloped as 
telegrams usually are. I opened it and found it to contain a set of ques- 
tions similar to the ones that had been published in the Gazette. I paid no 
attention to these questions. Then followed your inquiries, and it occurred 
to mo that the vile slanderers and traducers that had thus been foiled in 
their attempt to drag me into a controversy with them, had in some man- 
ner worked upon you, who had respectability and position to command 
from decent men that attention which they could not secure. In that sur- 
mise I may be mistaken; I do not charge it upon you, but your letters dis- 
claim any intention to injure me and I accept your disclaimer as true and 
then to your questions: You set out with the statement "thiat no one need 
to have curiosity to hear what he (Ward) will say in a speech, for he will 
say nothing new upon the general issues of the canvass." 

A number of meetings had been advertised in Chemung County at 
which I was to address my constituents upon public affairs. It seems to 
me that advice to the people to keep away fro-m the meetings (for that is 
the substance of it) as I could say nothing to interest them, is not exactly 
becoming in one who wishes to promote habits of openness, truth and 
perfect acquaintance between Representative and people. Suppose I should 
come out through the papers and advise the people not to attend your Sun- 
day evening lectures at the Opera House, because perchance you may in 
all your interesting speeches upon religious subjects, not utter a single 
word or thought that some religious teacher has not spoken or written 
before you. Would you regard this as a friendly act? Indeed, Mr. Beecher, 
there has seemed to be a disposition to belittle me in several of your mis- 
cellany, as you will doubtless remember. 



180 ha:\iilton ward. 

The questions about my habits, and as to whether I have bartered 
away the offices of the District for a consideration, and thus been guilty of 
the grossest political corruption— you must get answered from other soui-ce 
than myself. I have lived in this Congressional District for more than 
thirty years, boy and man, and if my daily walk and conversation will not 
answer those questions, I can make none. 

My salary and mileage is such as the law prescribes; ^5.000.00 a year 
and twenty cents a mile travel fee one session a year. For the last three 
years we have had two or three .sessions a year, and for the extra sessions 
have received no mileage, and I voted against giving any. I am a member 
of the Committees of Claims and Revolutionary Claims. 

While Congress is in session my duties as a member in the House 
at the Departments and attending to necessary correspondence keep me 
busy from ten to twelve hours a day. When Congress is not in session a 
large share of my time is occupied with duties pertaining to my office. I 
think the salary sufficient. With economy a member can save perhaps 
$1,000 a year; most of them save nothing. It breaks up a man's business 
completely; I have done no other business since I was in Congress except 
a little law business in vacation that would not amount to $200 a year. 
I can save much more money in my profession and not work half so hard, 
although, as you were once kind enough to say in your "Miscellany," I am 
"but a tolerable lawyer." 

I do not know how many federal offices there are in the District and 
how many of them draw salary of ^.lOO.OO or over. I have no time to look 
the matter up. You will have no difficulty in ascertaining that. 

I have given no thought to the subject of changes in the federal 
offices; have promised to effect none: hope to effect some where the in- 
cumbents are Johnson men. Copperheads or unfit for the place. Have prom- 
ised nothing on the subject; am under no pledges; will try and do for the 
best and as far as I consistently can wi'l build up and strengthen the Re- 
publican party. 

I have been in Congress nearly four years and am worth not to 
exceed $3,000.00. I never paid out a dollar in all my political operations 
that was not legitimately and properly paid and sanctioned by good morals 
and public policy. I never was intemperate in anything except tobacco, 
which I abandoned forever four years ago. Mr. Beecher, I hope your 
record as a public man and a citizen is as clean a.s mine. 

I told Mr. Langdon I would answer any proper questions that you 
might desire for your own information, and I have done so, but as I told 
you before, this i.s not for publication, but simply for your own informa- 
tion. 

I have never had my honor or integrity questioned except by vile 
political scavengers who assail me through partisan presses and harrangues 



THOMAS K. BEECHER EPISODE. 181 

when I am a candidate for office. I have never permitted myself to notice 
these slanders. Time and again I have been asked to do so by insulting 
and impertinent questions addressed to me through newspapers. If I 
answer one I must answer all or reason may seem to exist for the charge 
that I answered such as I dare and decline to answer such as I dare not. 
I cannot answer your questions through the papers unless I answer all 
that others may choose to ask through the Copperhead presses of the Dis- 
trict. I cannot, of course, attempt to answer all the things that are sur- 
mised or said against me. If anything is established against me by prima 
facie proof then I will confront and disprove it, but until that is done I 
will stand on that presumption of innocence that surrounds every man 
and upon the character that I am not ashamed of, that I have been thirty 
years forming. But no man can answer all the suspicions and accusations 
that all the idle and malignant tongues that are his enemies, personal and 
political, may utter in a political canvass, and I shall attempt to answer 
none that are based on simple allegations. These are my reasons for de- 
clining a public answer to your somewhat extraordinary questions. 

I agree with you in thinking that there should be frankness and 
confidence between Constituents and Representative, but I must be judged 
by my public and private acts and declarations, not by mere words in a 
newspaper controversy. 

Truly yours, 

HAMILTON WARD. 
You can show this to Mr. Langdon if you desire." 

To this Mr. Beecher replied on Oct. 20th as follows: 

Dear Mr. Ward:— 

I am sorry not to have leave to print your letter, but readily admit 
that your reasons for repressing are weighty. 

In what I have said about you in the Advertiser, I have never aimed 
to be polite or complimentary. I aim so to speak so as to hold the ear 
of men of both parties — and so in speaking of you I touch you up not 
untruly, but in a way that would offend a private and sensitive man. I 
hope you are at least as thick skinned a.-;; I am and can give and take. 

My judgment— soberly — is that extreme Republicans are wrong. That 
some of your votes have been unwise, but that you are by all odds the 
ablest man that we can send from this district. So I said when my pen 
was the very first to nominate you and so I say still. 

If Lucien Robinson had been nominated independently I should have 
done what I could to win votes for him. Our party needs a decent oppo- 
sition. 



182 HAMILTON WARD. 

I still think that no man need be curious to hear what you say in a 
political speech upon the general issues. But it was right and good for 
you to show yourself and people do well to come and hear and see you. 

I think that curiosity calls none but strangers to my lectures in Opera 
House. 

I return your letter and shall let no one know that I have received 
it. You may send it to Langdon if you wish. I never carry confidential 
messages. I can keep a secret but I never like to have help. 

You will be answered I trust by my letter in your name which I shall 
print this week. 

Trusting that we are better acquainted already, and shall be better 
still hereafter, I am, 

Truly your friend, 

THOS. BEECHER." 

And on the following Saturday concluded the episode by 
an article in his Miscellany as follows: 

Belmont, Oct. 26, 1868. 

Rev. T. K. Beecher: My Dear Sir; — When I first read your questions 
in the Advertiser I was vexed that you should lend yourself to the aid of 
•my numerous and unprincipled political enemies. But on second thought 
I remembered your eccentric position as a no party man, or a both party 
man, and so have tried to give you credit for sincerity in asking the ques- 
tions, and will therefore answer them frankly. But you will permit me 
to say that your course is a very odd one and does you no credit as a prac- 
tical man or astute politican. And I think that you ought to have at least 
consulted me privately before catechising me in public. But I have nothing 
to conceal, so here are my answers and you may do what you will with 
them: 

I have been Congressman from this district nearly four years. I 
have received for my services five thousand dollars each year; and for my 
traveling expenses or mileage one hundred and fifty dollars a year. The 
law entitles me to no less than this, and I claim no more. I have made 
during various recesses of Congress many trips between my home and 
Washngton in the service of my constituents, so that I have actually paid 
more money to railways than I have received as mileage. 

My duty as Congressman has completely broken up my business as a 
lawyer. My present income, less the increased expense of living at Wash- 
ington, is not as profitable to me as my former income as a practising law- 
yer. Had I remained at home my estate would have been at this moment 
larger than it is. Besides my salary and mileage, I, of course, have re- 
ceived nothing — not a cent. 



THOMAS K. BEECHER EPISODE. 188 

I can live decently upon my present pay. But I cannot lay up much. 
An hone.st Conj?ressman cannot make money. 

My duties occupy me at least twelve hours a day while Congress is in 
session. I am a member of several committees. All Congressman are put 
on some committee or other, and when they have experience, they are 
usually made chairmen of committees. This position adds much to a man's 
work, but nothing to his pay. Committee work makes no show, and gets 
a man no credit. 

I have frequently aided my constituents in transacting their Wash- 
ington business. Having had experience and having formed a large acquaint- 
ance there, I can help them more effectually hei-eafter. I have collected 
6ome claims against government, and helped collect others. I look upon 
this as part of my official duty, and what I do is paid for by my salary. 

I have never yet been elected to office except at some considerable 
cash expense. Elections are costly. The public treasury which pays the 
cost of schools, courts, legislatures, executions and damages by riots, 
curiously enough provides not a cent for elections. Hence it is customary 
for candidates and other patriotic citizens to make up a fund, and from it 
pay the cost of advertising, handbills, ballots and other printing; also the 
cost of bands, uniforms and kerosene oil, also the cost of wigwams, the 
rent of halls, the cost of documents, the travel of speakers, and "kicking 
up a fuss generally." To this fund I always contribute. I expect to spend 
at least a thousand dollars this year in perfectly lawful and honorable 
ways to secure my re-election, and the success of the principles I represent. 

I am not a member of any temperance society. But I am a strictly 
temperate man. I see much foolish drinking, in and around the capitol, and 
am sometimes unable to keep clear of it without giving offence. I have 
invited gentlemen to drink, and shall probably do so again, and yet I do 
not approve my own act in so doing. 

There are between thirty and forty offices in this district which yield 
a desirable though moderate income. Some of these offices are held by 
improper and unprincipled persons. I intend to recommend a change in 
every such case. A few responsible and quite lucrative offices I have 
thought should render me some assistance in meeting the necessary and 
honorable expenses of an election. I have selected good men for these offices, 
and they will share with me the expenses above named. And further, by 
the untimely death of Lincoln and the accession of .Johnson, and my well 
known opposition to his policy, I have been made powerless during four 
years to reward the friends or thwart the enemies of Republicanism in this 
district. I wish to go back to Congress now under better auspices, that I 
may in part repay faithful men for their labor and sacrifice in a good cause. 

I am ashamed of none of my nominees. TJiey are good men and true. 



184 HAMILTON WARD, 

I would give you their names, had I permission from them so to do. I 
truly regret the habits of secrecy which political warfare has created in both 
parties. 

Finally, The report you allude to is true. I have perfected arrange- 
ments in this district looking to my own re-eletion, a redistribution of 
federal patronage, and a triumph of the Republican party. And I believe 
that the people intend to re-elect me, because of the doctrines which I repre- 
sent. And there are twenty or thirty men who will get office by my election. 
If they consent I will give you their names. So far as I am concerned, 
I know not that I have a thought or an act that I fear to have unveiled. 
My wonder is that a man of your reputed intelligence should have need to 
ask such questions of me at all. 

Yours publicly, 

HAMILTON WARD. 

There is a letter which Mr. Ward did NOT write. But suppose he 
had, would he not be at this moment better off for it? 

Always after this Mr. Beecher was among Mr. Ward's 
warmest supporters and strongly advocated his nomination 
in 1870. 

Many meetings were held throughout the district and 
Mr. Ward spoke in almost every town. His speeches fol- 
lowed the general lines of those heretofore set forth and are 
not fully reported. In one of them he said: "That the 
rebels of the South and the Copperheads of the North are 
two links from the same sausage, both made from the same 
dog," inelegant but not inappropriate to the stump. 

At this period Mr. Ward's oratorical powers, at all times 
considerable, were at their best, and men who remember this 
campaign say that he carried his audiences by storm by the 
force of his eloquence, his earnestness and personal magnet- 
ism. 

In spite of the vigorous attacks made by General Gregg 
and other disgruntled persons, Mr. Ward was elected by a 
majority of 5,467, running sixty-eight ahead of the State 
ticket in Allegany County, twenty-eight behind in Steuben 
County and eighty-seven behind in Chemung County, the 
home of both his adversaries. 

This triumphant re-election of one who had so persist- 
ently assailed and defied President Johnson called forth 



IN CONGRESS 1869. 185 

much comment and many congratulations. xA.mong others, 
letters were received from Roscoe Conkling, Governor 
E. O. Morgan, of New York, and also James G. Blaine, who 
referred to Mr. Ward's service in the House as "honorable 
and valuable." 

In reconstructing the Southern States and in amending 
the constitution, Hamilton Ward took an active part, and in 
accordance with the postion taken all along by him, on the 
27th day of January, 1869, he ofTered in the House of Repre- 
sentatives the following proposed amendment to the consti- 
tution : 

"lusert in lieu of section one of the article proposed to be added to 
the Constitution the following: 

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge or deny 
to any male citizen of the United States, of sound mind, and over twenty- 
one years of age, the equal exercise of the elective franchise at all elections 
in the State wherein he shall have actually resided for a period of one year 
ne.Tt preceding such election, except such of said citizens as shall hereafter 
engage in rebellion, or insurrection, or who may have been or who shall be 
duly convicted of treason or other crime of the grade of felony at common 
law. 

In lien of section one of the article proposed to be added to the 
Constitution insert the following: 

No State .shall make or enforce any law wliich shall deny to any male 
citizen of the United States over twenty-one years of age, who has been 
such citizen for three months, the free exercise of the elective franchise in 
the State of his residence except as punishment for treason or other crime 
of the grade of felony at common law, whereof the person shall have been 
duly convicted. But this article shall not affect persons now disfranchised 
for participation in rebellion, nor prevent the execution of such proper regis- 
tration and naturalization laws as may be needed to protect the people in a 
just exercise of the elective franchise, nor to affect such qaulifications of 
electors as to time of residence as may be imposed by law for a period of 
one year or less." 

If the language of this amendment has been adopted 
the Louisiana plan of hereditary voting qualifications re- 
cently inaugurated would fall to the ground and the black 
vote could not be disfranchised by State law, as it now is 
throughout the South. 



jgg HAMILTON WARD. 

On January 29th, 1869, Mr. Ward delivered a ringing 
speech in the House on suffrage, which shows that he is firm 
in his ancient faiths. 

Mr Speaker, I think that nothing is more apparent than that this 
Congress should hand over to the people this proposition to amend the Con- 
Stut on It will be the capstone in the great temple of American freedom 
I w be the consummation of our great work. It will secure to us the 
uL Of the war. It will settle the controversies between th^ra^ ^U 



wil stop the contests between white men and black men. It will stop h 
"ntroversies of the North and the South on that subject. It wdl bnng tb 
country back to peace, which all the interests of the couutry demand. I 
hone Therefore, tL House will not hesitate about passing this amendment 
' b' t tl^^ gentleman from Ohio tells us that we should extend universal 
amnesty He tells us, in substance, that we shall hand suffrage over to 
Terv rebel and every traitor disqualified by the laws of those States fiw 
bright Of suffrage. I am opposed to that. {^^ ^^^'^^ ^'i::^:^ 
I ^m willing to be just: I am willing to give these men m the South their 
iveT Ube tv and p operty; but I am not willing to banish from the statue- 
Lok the 1 's punishment for treason; for the moment you admit them to 
suffrage you must admit them to office, and when you ad.mit them to office 
Mr Bi^ckenridge comes in triumph fron. Kentucky and takes his seat m 
the Senate Mr. Toombo comes in triumph from Georgia and takes tjie 
seat in the Senate which he dishonored, Jefferson Davis returns from his 
t iumphal tour in Europe and takes his seat, and we shall have those 
p""s back here who defiled these halls with treason, who went into re- 
be in and brought all the blood and sacrifice of the rebellion upon tl«^ 
country. It has occurred to me that the quality of mercy might be stramed 
that we might be too magnanimous. We have been too magnanimous al- 
ready. There is now a member of this House who was a brigadier genera 
ot the Confederate army, who was educated at West Point, and who has 
come here booted and spurred from the rebel service to make laws fo the 
widows and orphans he has helped to make. He was not admitted, how- 

'^''^ L^\iTU:rr much the recent conduct of the rebels entitles them 
to "universal amnesty." Look at the violent overthrow of the loyal Legis- 
lature of Georgia under the leadership of Albert Toombs ^t vv^s but be 
other day that we performed our last sad duty to a member of h.s House 
from Arkansas who was murdered in cold blood by rebels of that State, 
with twenty other prominent Union men. 

I hold in my hand what is called the "final summary" of the report 
of the committee of the Legislature of Louisiana on the conduct of the late 



IN CONGRESS 18G9. 187 

elections iu that State. The "summary" shows that the following number 
of Union men in that State were killed, wounded, and maltreated: eighteen 
hundred and eighty-seven, of which more than a thousand were killed out- 
right. This is the fruit of the "loyalty" of these former rebels in a single 
State. Clemency to such men is crime; it is unjust to the dead who fell 
in our cause and to the living who survive the contest, bearing its marks 
upon them, and it will be dangerous as a precedent iu the future. I hope 
we shall not insult the loyal sense of this nation by restoring all these 
murderous villains to political power. I am weary of this sickly senti- 
mentalism which strikes hands with traitors and criminals at the expense 
of justice and the public safety. 

I have no fears, Mr. Speaker, of giving suffrage to the black man. 
The nation in its march of greatness and to the accomplishment of its high 
destiny will confer it upon him. Let us have no timidity, no faltering. 
Let us shake not at the counsels of the weak, but go on and do justice, and 
from that will come safety, security, and peace. 

During the war General Lee's homestead at Arhngton, 
Va., fell into possession of the Federal troops and many 
relics of George Washington, the property of Mary Custiss 
Lee, were renioved to Washington. An effort was made by 
General Lee's family after the war to recover these articles 
and on the 27th of February, 1869, Mr. Ward offered the 
following resolution : 

"Whereas there appears in the Evening Express, a paper published 
in this city, under date of February 26th, 1869, the following: 

THE ARTICLES TAKEN FROM THE ARLINGTON HOUSE. 

General Robert E. Lee made application a few days ago. through a 
gentleman residing in this city, to the Secretary of the Interior for a num- 
ber of articles once the property of George Washington, which were taken 
from the Arlington House, General Lee's estate before the War, when that 
place fell into the possession of the Federal Army. The articles were 
pieces of household furniture, clothing, dishes, and papers, which formerly 
belonged to General Washington. Secretary Browning has decided to 
grant the request and an order has been given to turn the articles over to 
the person deputed by General Lee to receive them." 

Resolved, That the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds be 
directed to inquire into the subject, and ascertain whether the matter so 
published is true, and if true to ascertain by what right the Secretary of 
the Interior surrenders those articles so cherished as once the property of 
the Father of his Country to the rebel general-in-chief ; and that said Com- 



188 HAMILTON WARD. 

mittee report fully upon the subject by bill or otherwise; and that they 
have power in pursuing said investigation to send for persons and papers, 
and leave to report at any time." 

Unanimous consent not being obtained at this time for 
the adoption of the resokition, it went to a committee, who 
reported on March 3rd, as follows : 

Resolved, That the articles known as the effects of George Wash- 
ington, the Father of his Country, now in the custody of the Department 
of the Interior, are of right the property of the United States; and any 
attempt on the part of the present Administration or any Department there- 
of to deliver the same to the Rebel General, Robert E. Lee, is an insult to 
the loyal people of the United States; and they ought to remain as relics 
in the Patent Office, and ought not to be delivered to anyone without the 
consent of Congress. 

This resolution was adopted and the Government re- 
tained the relics. In 1901 some of the articles were ordered 
delivered to members of the L,ee family by the McKinley 
Administration. 

As Mr. Ward gained confidence in himself and the ear 
of the House, he was found day after day opposing appropri- 
ation bills ; at this time it is most difficult to distinguish be- 
tween proper and improper appropriations, but as one reads 
the records of the 39th, 40th and 41st Congresses the point 
that presents itself most prominently in Mr. Ward's record 
is his economy. He was growing restive under the ex- 
travagance of the Dominant Radical faction and while in the 
forefront of the opposition to Johnson at the same time he 
opposed his fellow Radicals in their reckless expenditure of 
public funds. 

His remarks on March 3rd, 1869, in opposition to pay- 
ing the claims of three contestants to the same seat in Con- 
gress are typical and are as follows : 

"Now I would like to know upon what principle we are to pay three 
men who come here demanding a seat and all of whom have been rejected. 
Is it possible that each one of these gentlemen had such claims to the seat 
as justified him in making a contest? Is it possible that each of them 
could have a prima facie i-ight to the seat? 



IN CONGRESS 18G9. 189 

It seems to me we should not be too liberal with the public money. 
It appears to me we should begin to redeem some of our broken promises 
tq the people. We have pledged ourselves to commence a system of 
economy and reform; to retrench in every possible way; to stop every leak 
in the public treasury. This is what we have promised the people in our 
platfornjs, our resolutions, our public speeches and declarations. It is 
about time that we should begin somewhere, somehow, and in some man- 
ner to stop the outrageous public expenditures which are constantly going 
on here. In this last night of the sessions of the Fortieth Congress let us 
commence a wholesale reform; let us inaugurate this work of economy. 
Let us admonish the twenty-live or thirty contestants for seats in the next 
Congress that if they come here claiming seats they must come here with 
a reasonable case; that every adventurer in the land shall not, if he can 
get a few votes in his favor, come here and make a contest, and after 
being rejected by the House be allowed his expenses as an inducement to 
all men of the same character and under similar circumstances to do in the 
future the same thing." 

Mr. Ward was active in the organization of the House 
and on March 5th, as spokesman of the RepubHcan caucus 
placed in nomination the Clerk, Edward McPherson, of 
Pennsylvania, and the Sergeant-at-Arms, N. G. Ordway, of 
New Hampshire, the two most important ofticers, who were 
duly elected. The leaders of the 40th Congress were mostly 
re-elected. 

In this Congress there first appeared George F. Hoar, 
of Massachusetts, James B. Beck, of Kentucky, and Daniel 
W. Voorhees, of Indiana. Noah Davis was iit the Nev.' 
York delegation. 

During Johnson's term the Republican majority feared 
to trust him with the full control of the U. S. Army and en- 
deavored to divest him of this constitutional right by enact- 
ing a law that all orders to the Army should pass throup;]i 
the General of the Army, at that time General U. S. Grant. 
With the defeat of Johnson and Grant's accession to the 
Presidency, the necessity for this emergency law disappeared 
and on the 15th day of ]\Iarch, 1869, Mr. Ward introduced 
Plouse Resolution No. 14, providing for the repeal of thii; 
act, and the act was subsequently repealed. 

On this day the standing committees of the 41 st Con- 



lt)0 HAMILTON WAKI). 

gress were announced by the Speaker, James G. Blaine, of 
Maine. Schuyler Colfax having been elected Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

Mr. Ward was not placed upon either of the Committees 
on Claims, where he had formerl}^ so zealously guarded the 
public purse, and instead was made fifth on the important 
Committee on Reconstruction, B. F. Butler, of Massachus- 
etts, being Chairman ; and second on the Committee on Ter- 
ritories, Shelby M. Cullum, of Illinois, being Chairman. 
Blaine had promised to make Mr. Ward chairman of the 
Committee on Claims, but this, like many other promises of 
this erratic statesman, was not carried out. 

On March 17th Mr. Ward asked to be excused from 
committee service, but the Speaker ruled that there was no 
quorum present to grant the desired permission. The re- 
quest was not again preferred. 

Mr. Ward never admired "The Plumed Knight" 
(Blaine), and often said in private conversation that he did 
not regard him as either an honest or sincere man, sharing 
this belief with Roscoe Conkling, who later became his warm 
and valued friend. 

In this connection it may be proper to set down Mr. 
Ward's idea of James A. Garfield, who was in Congress at 
this time, and who later became President of the United 
States and was assassinated by Guiteau. Garfield, Mr. 
Ward said, was a lazy man and of loose moral habits, but of 
great brilliancy. His speeches had a lofty and sincere tone 
which were not exemplified in his life, and the applause 
which greeted him from the gallery frequently came from 
the frail fair of his aquaintance who had come to hear the 
"Campbellite Preacher." Garfield's subsequent treatment 
of Conkling showed the weakness of his character. 

Mr. Ward's sense of humor was one of his most charac- 
teristic traits. Frequently he enlivened a dull debate with a 
joke, and in company he was always genial and affable. He 
much regretted his inability to recall names, and while hav- 
ing a remarkable memory for faces, he sometimes found it 
difficult to place a familiar countenance. He used to tell a 



AGRICULTURAL SPEECH 18G9. 191 

Story of an incident which occurred about this time which 
well illustrates this. One morning he took an Erie train 
at Elmira for Belmont, at one of the way stations in Steuben 
County a farmer got on who stared at him and sat down 
in the seat in front. Mr. Ward thought that he recognized 
the face but could not place the man, and fearing that he 
might offend some constituent who had carried a caucus for 
him, or something of the sort, he leaned forward, and ad- 
dressed the stranger, who continued to glance at him from 
time to time, and in his most engaging way said : '■! beg 
your pardon, but haven't I seen your face somewhere be- 
fore?" The supposed constituent, in a voice that could be 
heard all over the car. replied: "Mebby you have, stranger, 
mebby you have. I've had that face a long time and a good 
many darn fools have looked at it," which reply, needless to 
say, concluded the conversation. 

Later in the summer Mr. Ward delivered an address 
upon invitation at the Hornellsville Agricultural Fair, and 
extracts from it are as follows: 

''Ladies and Gentlemen: — You have brought here again youi- annual 
offering of fruits and flowers and the products of your farms and industry 
to present them in generous competition. Your contests here are those of 
peace and thrift, not of war and tumult. Your victories are over the steril 
soil, the forests, inclement seasons and nature's obstructions to toil, not 
over bloody fields and fallen men. 

Yours is the foundation art— Commerce rears its cities; builds palaces 
and costly piles: launches its ships upon the sea, but you furnish the 
material for the whole. The mechanic, arts, manufacture, adorn and 
beautify, but you give the mechanic the bread he eats; the wool that 
clothes his back and the silk and cotton for his family use. 

Yours is the primal art, thousands of years ago soon after the great 
diet was issued "Let there be light," "Abel was a keeper of sheep and 
Cain was a tiller of the ground." Before the prolific brain of man had 
worked out the great problems of civilization; before Tyre was built, Baby- 
Ion shone and Rome was founded on her seven hills, the sons of men 
wrought by agriculture from a generous earth nourishment for their chil- 
dren. 

The work of the husbandmen has grown with the ages and has par- 
taken of the improvements which during the last two centuries have revo- 
lutionized society and annihilated time and space and brought the ends of 
the earth together. ****** 



192 HAMILTON WARD. 

In conclusion let me say, son and daughter of toil, be not discour- 
aged or cast down. Yours is the work that Heaven imposes for wise pur- 
poses. No act of hand or heart or brain in this world is lost; its effect is 
more lasting than the granite hills, for it will remain when earth and sea 
shall pass away and the '"elements melt with fervent heat." Each blow 
you strike, each acre you till, each contribution you make to the world's 
wealth will bring its reward. 

Think not that your humble trade or calling is of no consequence, you 
are the Monarchs of the World, for you feed, cloth and support it. If 
you have uneasy longings after something better, if your ears would like to 
catch the silvery notes of fame and you desire the luxuries of riches, and 
you cannot accomplish these, be not discontented, these things bring thorns 
and sorrows that you know not of and you will be no happier if you 
possess them. 

Be content with what is allotted to you, and in all things do your 
duty, and you are the peers of the loftiest and equals of the best. Your 
name may not sound in "song or story," but the farmer with his little farm 
in debt, struggling hard to got an honest living and support his family, who 
rears up his children to be good citizens and useful men and women, and 
does his full duty to God and man; the mechanic that toils early and late at 
the forge or bench and struggling perchance in debt, misfortune or poverty 
to do his duty and rear his offspring in the right way, and leading an hon- 
est life, dies as he lived, fighting the world's battles bravely with his harness 
on his back; the poor widow in her weeds and with her helpless orphan chil- 
dren clinging to her for bread, goes nobly out into the cold world and gives 
up the labor of her life to get food and clothing for the little ones and to 
bring them up in honest paths and in the fear of Heaven, keeping alive 
through temptation, soitow and toil the noble wo-manhood that was given 
her and leading a pure and blameless life; these and such as these are 
the true heroes of this world, and such in the eternal judgment book they 
will be recorded." 

At the time of the re-assembhng of Congress in Decem- 
ber, 1869, the American people were much wrought up over 
the war for Cuban Independence then desolating that 
island, and the same desire for intervention was manifest 
which plunged the nation in war thirty years later and 
brought an end to Spain's dominion in America. 

On December 13th, Mr. Ward presented a petition 
signed by over 72,000 residents of New York State asking 
Congress to recognize Cuban independence and said : 



IN CONGRESS 1869. 193 

"I wish to say that it seems to me that the sufferiug of these people 
in Cuba in the cause of liberty, equal rights aud justice appeal to our com- 
miseration and sympathy; that the struggles of the people in Cuba in as- 
serting their independence and equal rights challenge our highest admira- 
tion. Aud I think it would be unbecoming tJie American Congress to refuse 
even to listen to the petition of the people of my State asking that the 
suffering cry of more than a million people almost within our own borders, 
struggling for life and liberty, should be heard; and that we should allow 
the petition to be read, is the least we can do. I ask unanimous consent 
that the petition be read at the Clerk's Desk." 

The petition is as follows: 
TO THE HONORABLE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: 

We, the citizens of the American Union, in behalf of the principles 
written in our charter of national independence, and in the name of libeity 
and the sovereignty of a people struggling to be free, respectfully petition 
that your honorable body do accord to Cuba the rights of a belligerent 
Power, and at once recognize the independence of her sons from the tyranny 
of a foreign yoke which for more than a year they have maintained un- 
aided, by the triumph of their arms. 

This was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
but with no substantial result. 

Had Congress at this time intervened before Cuba was 
desolated by the ten years war and before Wyler's policy of 
Re-concentration reduced the population by 40 per cent., the 
ultimate result would have justified it. 

On January 14th, 1870, in the House, in discussing the 
reconstruction of Virginia, Mr. Ward defended the report of 
the Reconstruction Committee, which advocated admitting 
Virginia on terms, i. e., requiring her to guarantee the civil 
rights and the franchise to the blacks. This requirement 
had not been made of Tennessee, but had been made in the 
case of the other reconstructed States, and Mr. Ward urged 
that it should especially apply to Virginia. His per-oration 
is as follows : 

Mr. Ward. Did the gentleman never hear of a bond without a pen- 
alty, of an obligation without a penalty? From his remarks it might be 
supposed he never heard of such. I suppose an obligation can be en- 
force<l without a penalty; and what we propose is to enforce this funda- 
mental condition by the power of the Federal Government in whatever way 



194 HAMILTON WARD. 

we are entitled to enforce it under the Constitution of the United States. 

Now, sir, we are told, and I must be brief, for I do not desire to 
occupy the whole time allotted to me — we are told by my colleague from 
New York [Mr. Wood] that we cannot in good faith impose any further 
conditions on the State of Virginia. He says that we agreed to accept her 
as she is substantially, and that it would be bad faith in us not to carry 
out the compact. Now, Mr. Speaker, that is a serious allegation. But to 
show you how much foundation there is for that allegation I shall read the 
seventh section of the act under which we authorized the President to sub- 
mt the question of the constitutiou of the three States, Virginia, Mississippi, 
and Texas, to the people. The closing provision is this: 

"That the proceedings in any such States shall not be deemed final 
or operative as a complete restoration thereof until their action shall be ap- 
proved by Congress." 

Now, the gentlemen say in face of this provision that we are guilty 
of bad faith to the people of Virginia if we impose further conditions which 
we deem essential for tlie security of the people of Virginia and the security 
of the naton. There is a reservation, and we are standing upon that reser- 
vation and imposing upon Virginia conditions such as we have imposed 
upon all the States which we have admitted under our reconstruction laws, 
with the single exception of the State of Tennessee, which we were deluded 
into admitting without any conditions under the leadership of the gentle- 
man from Ohio. We are told, sir, of the glory of the Old Dominion, 
its honor, its power, its history; we are told that the old State of Vir- 
ginia was a grand old State — the State of Madison, of Washington, of 
Henry, of Pendleton, of Randolph, of Monroe. Those men gave us the 
Constitution; those men were for union and for Government; those men 
pulled down the Confederation and built up the Federal Union. But their 
sons have degenerated. There came another epoch, another era of blood 
and carnage; there came the time when McClellan retreated down the 
peninsula, when Virginia' s hands were at the nation's throat, there came 
a time when the hostile power of Virginia hung like a cloud over your 
capital. 

There came a time when Virginia's sons, led on by Lee and Stonewall 
Jackson, threatened the nation's life. Thei-e came a time when rebels took 
possession of the State government of Virginia. There came another time, 
thank God, when the rebel army was overthrown and Virginia lay prostrate 
at the nation's feet. Then we demanded of her guarantees that would pro- 
tect the loyal men of that State by distinct enactments. The "first families" 
rejected provision after provision that was submitted to them. The "first 
families" stood defiant and furious until Grant was elected and the Re- 
publican party took triumphant po.ssession of the Government, and then 



SPEECH AGAINST POLYGAMY 1870. V.)7> 

thoy cringed around the knees of power and begged to be let in on such 
terms as they might prescribe. I tell you, Mr. Speaker, while I do not in- 
tend to be uncharitable, I have no faith in rebels of this generation. I be- 
lieve, witJi few exceptions, they respect and fear but one thing, and that 
is the power of this Government; and while we have got that power, I 
would insist upon enforcing it. And now, sir, when Stonewall Jackson and 
Lee and the Confederate Congress have been swept away we stand upon 
the ruins of the old State government, we propose to build it up and cement 
it in fundamental law upon the eternal principles of right, justice, and 
equity, that all men shall be protected in the right to the ballot and the 
jury-box; and we propose to petrify those rights in their constitution, so 
that when storms shall come hereafter they cannot be lost or overwhelmed; 
that treason may raise its hydra head no more; that the land of Washing- 
ton, Jefferson ajid Madison may be restored with a true republican govern- 
ment to its old place in the Union, there to remain forever, realizing the 
hope that inspired those heroic men when they dared and achieved so much 
to obtain our national independence; that the Union of these States should 
last for many centuries to come, securing to all men within its borders the 
priceless blessings of civil and religious liberty. 

Virginia was subsequently admitted with the restric- 
tions. 

During- this term Mr. Ward passed a bill providing foi 
the holding of an annual term of the Circuit and District 
U. S. Courts in the City of Elmira, a privilege which that city 
still enjoys. 

On March 23rd, he delivered a speech on polygamy in 
Utah which he regarded as one of his best efforts. Extracts 
from it are as follows : 

In everything I see in reference to this institution of polygamy does 
it become me now and here to condemn it. It has been condemned by the 
sentiment of a century, and it has received the condemnation of all honor- 
able and proper people. Whenever you degrade women you degrade all. 
That institution which debauches the mother, which dishonors the wife, 
which disgraces the daughter and sister, strikes at the foundation of all 
just government and free institutions. Say what you may of your great 
Republic, plead as you may for its success, glorify as you may over it» 
stretching from ocean to ocean and from the frozen regions of the North 
to the (Julf of Mexico, reaching its influence throughout the globe. Christian- 
izing and beautifying the world — say what you may, it all rests upon home 
virtue. It rests upon the love, its rests upon the integrity of the mother and 



196 HAMILTON WARD. 

wife; and whenever you debauch the home and household you corrupt all; 
and it is the homes of this country. North, South, East, and West, where 
purity reigns, where virtue reigns, where this Republic is to live, and upon 
that superstructure to-day, with God's blessing, it is permitted to stand. 

I ask you, honorable gentlemen, where would you have been if your 
homes had been brothels and your mothers concubines? How often in the 
history of your lives can you look over the desert track of your existence 
and recall all that has surrounded you, and at the same time recall the 
flaming sword which seemed to stand at the gate and kept you from doing 
evil. I ask you, when you remember this, what it was that preserved you 
so well? What were more powerful than the early influence of a mother's 
guidance and the lessons of love and duty which spring up in every virtuous 
household? These principles, learned in the homes of the land, are what 
have saved you from every peril that may have beset your path in life. I 
remember very well one who was pure and beautiful, and who twenty 
years ago they buried on the banks of the James. I remember very well 
whose counsel it was hung over my childhood like an angel beam and 
protected me from a thousand harms. I pay this tribute to her name. I 
speak of these things because it is proper, and we are called upon in relation 
to this matter to go to the i-oot of all government, and that is the house- 
hold. Say what you may of the woman of Utah; say that they acquiesce 
in this system; refer if you please to their conduct in reference to this bill; 
but you cannot change their nature. Six thousand years have rolled over 
this earth and still it is the same with women. She will admit of no part- 
nership in her affections. She will admit of no division of her regards. 
While man is controlled by schemes of ambition, which he pursues over laud 
and sea the woman, the true woman, has but one great ambition, and that 
is to make her home a paradise. You break down^ that home, you destroy 
that feeling, and you crush her, you tend to make her a waif, you tend to 
make her a debauched and dishonored thing, you leave her at the mercy of 
every wind and tide that may assault her. And when your legislation en- 
courages this state of things I assure you, Mr. Speaker, that it strikes at 
the very foundation of free institutions. 

In June he introduced a resolution in the House to re- 
move the tariff on coal, which was passed in spite of opposi- 
tion from Pennsylvania, and his ever present inclination to 
joke was manifested in the same month when a resolution to 
appropriate moneys for an expedition to the North Pole was 
being considered, by moving- an amendment that a like sum 
be appropriated for an expedition to the South Pole, as Con- 



SPEECH ON INCOME TAX. 197 

gress should not discriminate in favor of either Pole. 

Mr. Ward took a decided stand on the proposal to re- 
peal the income tax law, a species of taxation now growing 
in favor, and his remarks on June 2nd, on that subject, are as 
follows : 

"Mr. Speaker, I have refrained from takinj? any part in the debates 
which have grown out of financial questions which the Committee of Ways 
and Means have presented through their tariff bill and the bill now before 
the House. I have preferre<l to listen to what gentlemen might say who 
are more able to address the House on this subject than I pretend to be. 
Sir, to my dull apprehension it is not apparent what great evil there is to 
grow out of the continuance of this income tax. It seems to me that the 
opposition to the continuance of this tax springs from a very s^mall portion 
of the people — less than three hundred thousand — so much so that it has 
become a special inter*, st, and we all know how liable we all are to be con- 
trolled by special interests to the exclusion of the great mass of the peo- 
ple. Special interests get hold of the newspapers. Special interests be- 
siege our committee-rooms, and besiege us a^ we come to our seats daily, 
follow us to our rooms, and press their special claims upon us; and we are 
apt to forget in the midst of all this the interest of the great mass of the 
people pursuing their peaceful avocations at home, who require us to 
represent the mass well as these special interests. 

Now, sir, in taking into consideration the question of taxation we 
should take a comprehensive view of the whole question, State and National. 
We have two systems of taxation in this country very much indcpendont 
of each other, and each almost absolute in its power. Now, look over the 
State tax, which is the main tax affecting the people of the country. 
Where do you collect your State and municipal tax? You collect them 
from the land, from the agricultural interests. You collect them from the 
men who have an interest in the soil, because the soil is apparent and the 
tax-gatherer can reach it. Personal property escapes taxation in the States 
almost entirely; this species of property, perhaps, can be taxed better than 
any other, yet we all know it is not included in State taxes to any great 
extent. Wheni we come to look at the national taxes, how do we find 
Ihom? We find the principal tax which affects personal property under onr 
internal revenue system is this tax on incomes. It is al)out the only tax 
which reaches to any extent the large amount of personal property in this 
country. If you abolish this taxe then you abolish about the only remaining 
tax on personal property, except the tax on bank deposits and circulation. 
What else do you do? You abolish the only tax which reaches the income 



198 HA^riLTOX WARD. 

of the bondholder. While I have never been in favor of taxing the bonds 
absolutely, as we have not the legal power to do so, cannot do so in good 
faith, I have always felt that the income from those bonds should be 
made to contribute its proportion in defraying the great expenses which the 
national debt has imposed upon the people. But we are told that this tax 
is inquisitorial. So it is; all taxes are; they pry into a man's affairs, and 
seek to reach his hidden means. An honest man will mot be troubled with 
this as he will make his fair return to the assessor and pay his tax; but the 
rogue needs all the machinery of this law to make him disclose what he 
tries to hide. It is said, as a reason for not continuing this tax, that many 
dishonest men pay no income tax and shirk it, while the honest men have 
to pay it. That is true of all taxation, more or less true of all obligations 
and duties that men owe to society, to their country and to their Creator. 
Good men perform them; bad men seek to, and do in the main, evade them. 
Would you, because of that, abolish all taxes and do away with the per- 
formance of all obligations and duties that the interests of society and the 
welfare of the State demand? 

As poorly as this income tax is collected the Government realizes 
more than thirty million dollars annually out of it. This, as we all know, 
comes mainly from the rich, from the men who live in palaces and have 
their thousands and millions of income. A. T. Stewart's income is $3,000,- 
000 a year, upon which he pays $150,000 a year income tax. Shall we take 
this tax off of him and distribute it around among the farmers of the coun- 
try and mechanics who have all they can do to support their families and 
pay their taxes now? Some one must raise the money. Is it not better 
that the rich should pay it out of then- abundance rather than the poor 
out of their poverty? But we are told that this tax operates seriously on 
those who live on salaries, and have nothing else to depend on. This bill 
you will observe, Mr. Speaker, now exempts $1,500, $500 more than the old 
law. This change is just, but I am in favor of no greater exemption. I 
think that the man who gets more than that amount of salary can better 
afford to pay an income tax on the excess than the small landholder or busi- 
ness man who is already overburdened with his load of State and municipal 
taxation. 

But, sir, as a general principle, I am in favor of a reduction of tax- 
ation. We now collect in excess of the needs of the Government $100,000,- 
000 a year. That is more than is necessary; sixty or seventy million dol- 
lars are enough. Let us reduce thirty or forty million dollars, but let not 
that reduction come from the luxuries, such as tobacco and liquor; let it 
not come from the few who have large incomes and plethoric purses, but 
let it reach the business of the masses as this bill proposes. Strike out 
your petty taxes, your licenses on trades and occupations, amend your tar- 



IN CONGRESS 1S70. lO'J 

iff. take off your duty on coal, reduce it on sugar, tea, coffee, molasses and 
salt. Some of these articles come from abroad and are not produced iu 
this country. The principle of protection to home industry is not seriously 
infringed in these reductions. These articles enter into the consumption of 
every family iu the laud. How would honest gentlemen appear to their 
honest, hardworking constituents, to take the income tax of $200 a year off 
of their own congressional salaries and leave the heavy tax upon these 
necessaries of life? For one, sir, I most earnestly protest against that 
policy which protects the few at the expense of the many." 

A few days later he spoke on a bill prepared by the 
Committee on the Judiciary in accordance with a resolution 
introduced by him on March 12th to regulate the naturaliza- 
tion of aliens, a practice at that time attended with m'any 
irregularties in the city of New York, where 70,000 natural- 
ization papers were issued in one year, where one judge 
naturalized over 1,000 daily for twenty-three days and one 
witness was used in over 500 cases. After reciting these and 
similar facts and accusing Tammany Hall of stealing by this 
means the electional vote of New York in 1868. \Vr. Ward 
concluded as follows: 

"If you allow party prejudice, party tactics, or a fear of being mis- 
interpreted by German or Irish constituencies, if you allow anything of 
that kind to control you in voting on this bill, that which is now but a 
speck so far as the whole nation is concerned, will grow until it covers 
the whole land, and ballot-box stuffing will beco-nie a general evi; and when 
that is done, gentemen may as well bid farewell to the liberties and free 
institutions bequeathed to us by our fathers and secured to us by the 
blood of our brethren during the recent rebellion; then all the glorious 
privileges which have come down to us will be frittered away, and an- 
archy and discord will settle on the Republic, and the proud name of 
America will go down into gloom of eternal night. 

All we have is the ballot. The ballot .stands between the rich man 
and the poor and between the poor man and the rich. The ballot stands 
between the oppressed and the oppressor. The balance stands bitwctu 
the ignorant and the wise, between the designing and the simple. 

But, sir, whenever you make the ballot an instrument of fraud, when- 
ever you have brought about that state of affairs everywhere which exists 
in New York, when the hoiU'St people of my district and of other districts 
pbrink from voting because they knov.- they will be counted out, that there 



200 HAMILTON WARD. 

is no use of going to the polls, for they will be cheated no matter how- 
many votes they may cast; when that state of things prevails generally 
throughout the country, there will be no longer any hope for the preserva- 
tion of our free institutions. I say to this House and to the country that 
the Government which we in part represent on this floor will, so far as 
Republicanism is concerned, fade and disappear like the baseless fabric 
of a dream." 

This bill, unfortunately, did not become a law. 

Mr. Ward was violently assailed by the Tammany 
organs in New York for his activity in this matter. 

During this session he offered several bills providing 
bounties for volunteers who enlisted early in the war, and 
continued to oppose many appropriations. 

During the spring and summer of 1870 the question of 
Mr. Ward's re-nomination for a fourth term was energetical- 
ly discussed all over the district. 

In February an unsatisfactory collector of Internal 
Revenue for the District had been summarily removed, A. J. 
Avrill, by name, of Bath, and Anson Congdon, of Clarksville, 
Allegany County, had been appointed in his place. Avrill 
had made a hard fight for retention and his friends in Steuben 
County were vindictive, however, his removal seemed to be 
for the best, and in accordance with the wishes of the party 
leaders as stated by Ebenezer Ellis and Willliam W. Smith, 
leading Republicans of Bath, and friends of Mr. Ward's, in 
letters v/ritten to him urging the removal. 

In Chemung County General Gregg was again a can- 
didate, but a more formidable adversary, Mr. Ward's old 
time friend, H. B. Smith, disputed with Gregg for the dele- 
gates. Judge Brooks was also in the field, and all of Mr. 
Ward's friends finally supported Smith, who secured the 
delegates. 

S. F. Hayt, of Steuben County, had also become an ac- 
tive candidate, and the politicians of the district were restive 
over the principal of rotation in office which Mr. Ward's 
three nominations had violated. From all over the district 



IN CONCJUESS 1S70. 201 

came reports of unusual activity on the part of various per- 
sons who were opposed to him, A. N. Cole and the Wellsville 
Free Press bitterly attacking him. Mr. Smith earnestly 
urged on the ground of past relations, that he, Smith, should 
be given the nomination. Men whom Mr. Ward had be- 
friended and appointed to ofifice deserted him, among whom 
were C. S. Cole, Assessor of Internal Revenue of Corning, 
and H. C. Fisk, of Wellsvalle. On the other hand men like 
Ebenezer Ellis, A, A. Van Arsdale, Thomas Beecher and 
Dr. Pratt were unfaltering in their friendship. 

The Buffalo Express at this period says : 

We see that some opposition to the re-nomination of Hon. Hamilton 
Ward is manifesting: itself in the Twenty-seventh District. We hope that 
the Republicans of that district will not allow Mr. Ward to be retired from 
Conjrress now, whatever claims other candidates may seem to have to the 
honor of the representative oflBce. He has served them too well and his 
Bervice.s have been too valuable, not only to them, but to the public and 
the party at large. Mr. Ward has been one of the strong meu in Congress 
since he held a seat there, occupying a position and exerting an influence 
which it will be hard to find any successor who can readily command. 
Such men ought to be retained in Congress so long as the good work that 
they have been doing is not fully done. 

The old feeling that the game was not worth the candle 
as indicated in the letter to Col. Scott in 1868, was still 
strong and partly influenced by this, partly by the importun- 
ity of Mr. Smith and his friends, and partly by the knowledge 
that he must begin to provide for his family, and that at this 
time his wife desired his constant presence; Mr. Ward on 
August 23rd wrote the following letter: 

Belmont, Aug. 23, 1870. 
To -my Constituents: 

At the solicitation of many friends, and, I believe, with the approval 
of a large majorty of the R»pub]ican party of this Congressional District, 
a few weeks ago I became a candidate for the 42d Congress. 

Active opposition sprung up in the District, coming largely from 
•ources that gave ansarances of support when I became a candidate; and 



202 HAMILTON WARD. 

a warm and somewhat bitter contest has arisen culminating in forcing 
a call for the election of Congressional delegates in Steuben County on 
short notice. A fair consideration of my claims im the face of much 
calumny and excitement becomes impossible in the short time allowed, 
especially as for domestic reasons I. cannot leave home to give further per- 
sonal attention to the canvass. Under the circumstances I feel it my duty 
to withdraw from the contest, and am therefore no longer a candidate. I 
thank my friends for their long continued confidence and support. 

In conclusion let me say that the mission of the Republican party 
is not yet ended. It is the duty of us all to heal the party dissensions, and 
press on with undiminished effort to secure the continued ascendancy of its 
policy and principles. 

HAMILTON WARD." 

Of this the Corning Journal says: 

"We publish to-day a letter addressed to his constituents by the Hon. 
Hamilton Ward, who declines to be a candidate for re-nomination. 

Mr. Ward has been a faithful representative from this district, and 
acquired a position and prominence in the House which enabled him to 
exert a marked influence upon legislation. He has been one of the most 
industrious and reliable members, and his experience gave him an unusual 
influence. We know this from personal observation, as we noticed the 
uniform respect accorded him by his fellow-members in the House and out 
of it, and when he made a speech it commanded unusual attention. He 
has been an able advocate of the policy of reconstruction. He has served 
the district laboriously and at no personal advantage. No shadow of 
suspicion attaches to his name and his reputation for strict integi-ity is 
unblemished. His official record does him much honor and he is entitled to 
the commendation of being a faithful public servant whose reward is the 
conscousness of having done his duty." 

The withdrawal was generally regretted throughout the 
District by the masses of the party. 

H. Boardman Smith of Chemung was finally nominated 
and later elected. 

Domestic duties and obligations occupied much of Mr. 
Ward's time, and his attendance on the last session of the 
41st Congress was uneventful. On February loth, 1871, he 
presented a petition of the Homeopathic School of Physi- 



IN CONGRESS 1S71. 203 

cians of the State of New York, asking for the incorporation 
of a National University, at Washington, and on the follow- 
ing day opposed the expenditure of moneys on the govern- 
ment of the territory of Alaska recently acquired by the 
Johnson administration from Russia, there being no indica- 
tion at that time of the extensive gold mines which have 
since made the Klondike and Cape Nome household words. 

On January 20th, 1871, a son was born to Mr. and Mrs, 
Warc^ at No. 1730 F Street, now 1722 F Street North West, 
Washington. D. C, who on the following Wliitsunday was 
christened Hamilton, at the Episcopal Church in Belmont, 
N. Y. 

AfterMr. Ward retired from Congress and the political at- 
mosphere cleared, much regret was manifested throughout 
the State by the people generally that he had not continued 
to represent the district. 

The Elmira Advertiser contains the following: 

The Hon. Hamilton Ward, who has served the people 
of this district with so much faithfulness and ability during 
the six years past, retires at the end of the present session. 
We deem this a proper occasion to re-express in the strongest 
terms the sense of proper appreciation for the high qualities 
he has exhibited and the great services he has rendered. Not 
once in all his long and honorable career has he hesitated or 
stumbled in his duty. True to the principles of the Repub- 
lican party as the needle to the pole, he was awarded that 
perfect confidence which his faithfulness deserved. In return- 
ing to private life he will rest upon an honorable reputation 
fairly earned. He comes with no added wealth save that 
which is inseparable from the riches of an untainted name. 
Having thus demonstrated his fitness and capacity for public 
station, we shall be surprised if other and higher honors do 
not soon await him. 

The lot of a conscientious public servant is indeed a 
hard one. Mr. Ward had devoted six of his best and most 
vigorous years to the service of his district; he had attained 



204 HAMILTON WARD. 

a national reputation ; he had become one of the party lead- 
ers on the floor of the House ; his speeches were read all over 
the land, and some of them were so highly regarded that 
they were used to instruct the young in eloquence. He had 
been among the first to brave the wrath of Johnson, and 
that battle won, he had steadily and perserveringly, even at 
the expense of party censure, guarded the pubhc funds 
against the reckless extravagance of that period. He had 
been one of the guiding spirits of the Re-construction, and 
had withstood the soft sentimentalism of too much forgive- 
ness. While he had sat in the counsel of the mighty his 
course on all public questions had been that of a man of the 
people, he had been fearless and energetic in the dis- 
charge of every duty from the impeachment of a President to 
the pensioning of a crippled veteran, and at the end he found 
himself poor in purse, weary with the heavy years just 
passed, with a business destroyed and a profession forgotten, 
facing new necessities and new trials. But the fortitude and 
energy with which he began again enabled him at a later 
period to endure much severer trials. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Civil Life. 1S71-1879 

For a time Mr. Ward was busily engaged in picking up 
the threads of his neglected law practice. It was worse than 
beginning anew ; with a broad knowledge, a ready wit, a 
brain energized by vast responsibilities and conflicts of 
national moment, the petty affairs of rural life could not 
have been inviting. From a horizon whose boundaries were 
the limits of nations his interests were suddenly reduced to 
the little village in the valley. From participating in im- 
peaching Presidents, amending constitutions and recon- 
structing States, he came back quietly and uncomplainingly 
to petty lawsuits, his musty little office and his daily five- 
mile walk among the hills. Debts had accumulated, ex- 
penses had increased, other lawyers had secured his clients, 
but with resolution and energy he took up the struggle 
with poor results at first, and with much humiliation and dis- 
tress of mind, but as the years went on events yielded to his 
persistency and his business returned. To this was most of 
his time given, but public affairs still held their charm for 
him. 

In the fall of 1871 Mr. Ward was elected a delegate to 
the famous Republican State Convention known as "The 
vSyracuse Convention." Tn this convention he was an ad- 
herent of Horace Greeley and Governor Fenton. The princi- 
pal dispute in the convention was ?s to the admission of con- 
testing df^lcgations from New York County. Mr. Ward finally 
suggested that the vote be divided and one-half be given to 
each of the delegations. This wns supported in a speech 



206 HAMILTON WARD. 

which roused great enthusiasm, and which carried the con- 
vention with it, although a large majority of the delegates 
were supporters of Conkling. Conkling then took the floor 
and in one of his most powerful speeches turned the tide 
and Mr. Ward's proposition was defeated by a narrow mar- 
gin. 

Of this convention Charles E. Fitch of Rochester, a 
man long prominent in literary and political circles says : 

"It is nearly thirty years since I first knew and admired 
Hamilton Ward. The occasion was that of the holding of 
the Republican State Convention in Syracuse in 1871. It 
was a time of earnest and even bitter contention within the 
party. Faction was rife and there were portents of coming 
disintegration, if not of dissolution. The main controversy 
turned upon the admission of contesting delegations from 
New York City, the one headed by Horace Greeley and 
critical of the administration of President Grant, and the 
other marshalled by Thomas Murphy, then the principal 
federal office holder in the metropolis. Mr. Ward was a 
delegate from the County of Allegany, He had already had 
a brilliant Congressional career and was an acknowledged 
leader of his party in the southern tier. He was prominent 
throughout all the deliberations, but was especially daunt- 
less and wise in proposing the admission of both delega- 
tions, each, however, having a half vote. In presenting his 
plan, he necessarily crossed swords with Senator Conkling, 
then in the full flush of his fame and universally recognized 
as the exponent of the administration and the dispenser of 
its patronage. In the battle royal that ensued, the Senator 
made a speech which is still remembered as one of his most 
fervid and forceful utterances, but Hamilton Ward, alert, re- 
sourceful, adroit, and, more than all, sagacious and patriotic. 
a foeman worthy of his steel, would have carried the 
day, save that the well drilled forces of the administration 
excelled in numbers and had the coherence which public 
patronage too often produces. His defeat, however, did 
not diminish either the personal standing of Mr. Ward, nor 



POSITION AS TO GREELEY. 207 

Stain the integrity of his pubhc record. It was a defeat 
which redounded to his credit. Had he succeeded, much of 
the subsequent dissensions within the party would have been 
placated and the ill-starred Liberal Republican movement, 
with the hostilities it engendered and the humiliations it 
caused, would have been avoided." 

The Greeley delegates were very grateful to Mr. Ward 
for his interposition in their behalf, and by a resolution he 
was formally thanked by the New York County Committee 
and Asher Barnett, one of the delegates, in a letter to him, 
dated Oct. 7th, suggests that "the time may come when you 
will be called upon to occupy the seat of one who now dis- 
graces, it," (referring evidently to Senator Conkling). It is 
interesting to note that the friendship betw^een Mr. Ward 
and Senator Conkling, which lasted until the death of the 
latter and which had a profound influence on Mr. Ward's 
career, sprang from this antagonism which engendered mu- 
tual respect. 

Time went on and Mr. Ward devoted most of his ener- 
gies to his profession. The Greeley movement on the part 
of the so-called Liberal Republicans, while it was a protest 
against the favoritism and extravagance of the Grant 
regime, enlisted his sympathy, but when it became an organ- 
ized movement to disrupt the Republican party he held 
aloof. Many Democrats, however, claimed that he was 
secretly supporting Greeley, and to conclude the matter he 
w-rote a letter to his old friend. Dr. Pratt of the Corning 
Journal, which was widely copied and which is as follows : 

Belmont, Aug. 15, 1872. 
Dr. George W. Pratt: 

Dear Sir: — Yours is received, referring to newspaper discussion on 
the subject of my position politically, and should have been answered be- 
fore but for the pressure of professional duties. 

I do not know why the newspapers should be troubling themselves 
about me. I am holding no office, and am seeking none, and only want 
to be "let alone" to attend to my business. Some of the newspapers have 



208 HAMILTON WARD. 

done me great injustice in representing that my position was doubtful; 
others still greater injustice in asserting that I was waiting to determine 
which was to be the "winning side." 

I wrote you some time ago how I felt, and that I was for Grant. I 
think still that our true safety lies in his election. I have criticised freely 
some of his acts, which need not be repeated here, and for this reason, 
I suppose, some people have regarded me as unsound, as many persons 
caimot understand why a man should refuse to hide all the faults of his 
party and his candidates, and to magnify all those of the opposition. 
Unless he is unsound at heart, 1 think in politics, as well as in other mat- 
ters, we had better keep to the truth, and admit frankly such mistakes as 
the President has made. Hjs letter of acceptance seems to concede that 
he has committed errors, and proposes to avoid them in future. At least 
the sharp criticisms of the campaign will admonish him in that direction. 

I have uniformly insisted that the administration of public affairs by 
the present administration has been a great success in these respects: 

The laws have been faithfully executed; the Union; men of the 
South have been protected in all their rights; a large amount of the public 
debt paid; public credit re-established, and general prosperity has at- 
tended the business interests of the country. 

I have great respect for Mr. Greeley as a man, and believe him 
sincerely opposed to fraud and corruption, public and private. 

Had he remained in the Republican party, and been the nominee of 
that party, I could have cheerfully supported him for President. But, 
pray, what can Mr. Greeley do with the Republican party against him, 
and driven as he will be, if elected (to obtain that support which his ad- 
ministration will need and must have to rescue it from absolute failure) 
to the Democratic party? 

Will they not demand wrong changes? Will they not require a new 
policy? Will not the former rebels who constitute a large influential por- 
tion of his supporters demand some unequivocal recognition? 

It will not satisfy the party who elected Mr. Greeley should he tread 
in the beaten path of his immediate predecessor. He must do something 
different. Will that change be as to the finances? Shall we hear again 
the old proclamation "that the way to resume specie payments is to 
resume?" 

Will it be as to the Kuklux and other laws, whose enforcement is 
needed at the South? It will be as to some or all these things, and that 
demand will be peremptory, and cannot be resisted; and so Mr. Greeley 
and the comparatively few Republicans who go with him, will they not be 
swallowed up in the great "tidal wave" of the Democracy, and found in 
the end to do many things they now shrink from? History will only repeat 



POSITION AS TO GRP:ELEY. 209 

in a large scale what has occurred in Tennessee, Virginia and Missouri. 
In each of these States the Democracy put forward a Republican for 
Governor, and taking a small portion of the Republicans with them, by 
the movement elected him, but took good care to elect at the same time a 
Democratic Legislature. What was the effect? The hitherto Republican 
State became intensely Democratic, and remains so. The greater swallowed 
up the less. 

I hail with great joy the adoption, by the Democracy, of the con- 
stitutional amendments and the "new departure." If they mean all this 
the nation has taken a great stride in the direction of permanent reconstruc- 
tion and peace. I will not question! their sincerity here, but it is due to the 
question and to ourselves to say that we must be permitted still to think 
that we are quite as capable and trustworthy to take charge of the nation, 
and preserve all the fruits that we have won, as to trust them to the 
Democracy and former rebels. We must still be allowed to remember 
that not a Democrat in Congress, by vote or deed, has ever acted up to the 
professions of the "new departure." 

At least we must expect mischievous legislation if the Congress is 
not Republican. The opposition believe the reconstruction laws oppressive 
and unjust. Will we not have an amendment here and there? Will the 
reconstruction laws be enforced in "spirit and in truth?" Will they be 
enforced at all? I was greatly alarmed in reading an editorial in the 
Tribune under date of June 28, 1872, under the title of "Representative 
Government in Alabama," in which the reconstruction acts are sneered at, 
if not directly assailed. 

Again, if Mr. Greeley is elected, the last disability is removed from 
the last rebel, and .Jeff Davis, Robert Toombs, and John C. Breckenridge 
can return to the Senate of the United States. I have fought too long 
and hard against such a consummation as this to consent to it now. 

The Cincinnati platform contains the suggestion, and the Greeley 
press are teeming with the idea that the rights of the States have been 
invaded. We have much mysterious talk about "centralization." Mr. 
Schurz is taking up and earnestly repeating the old Democratic clamor 
about the "sovereignty of the States." 

Now, what does all. this mean? Does it mean that all protection is 
to be withdrawn from the Union people of the South? Does it mean that 
the collection of the federal revenue in the South is to be taken from the 
hands of those who favor its collection and placed in charge of those who 
think the South should contribute nothing to the payment of the national 
debt or the expenses of the government? 

Does it mean that civil rights bills and other acts of Congress to 
secure the rights of the people of the several States should be repealed, 
and that the Republican party in its great work of compelling the "in- 



210 HAMILTON WARD. 

surgent States" to be Republican in deed as well as in form, has gone too 
far with the power of thje national government? It certainly means some 
or all of these things, and if any, can we who helped do this work, now 
aid in its destruction? They are treading upon dangerous ground. This 
is just the point at which Calhoun began to teach forty-three years ago. 
First it was "State sovereignty." Then it was the right of the State to 
judge for itself whether the government was right or wrong in a contest 
with a State. Them came the doctrine that in case of such difference, and 
a collision came, the citizen owed his first and superior allegiance to his 
State. Then, as a natural consequence, though Calhoun had passed away, 
came secession, rebellion and the Confederacy. 

The danger under our form of government lies not from the general 
government, but from the States. State pride, interests and attachments 
are stronger than those entertained for the nation. 

The State is the immediate home government of the citizeni; he feels 
it more operating upon all his rights, social and business affairs, than the 
other; and when the hour of trial comes, his first feelings and desire is to 
go with his State. 

Suppose a state of war existed to-day between the loyal State of 
New York and the Federal Government, can any one doubt where the 
sympathies of the majority of the people of this State would be? The 
tendency all the time is to strengthen the parts and weaken the center. 
This tendency should be combatted in all our public action and not in- 
creased. 

There is but one safe course, my friend, for us to pursue; Avhatever 
may be the resentments of the hour or the interests of individuals, we 
should be guided by principle. Our path of duty is plain— to stand by the 
old ship; there are pirates, no doubt, on board, and the craft has seen 
some foul weather; but the ship is sound from heel to topmast, and there 
is a good man at the helm, and he will keep her steady in the breakers. 

We know that we are safe where we are. It is dangerous to change. 
We know that under the Republican party the nation has been saved; its 
honor preserved; its faith kept, and general prosperity has come to the 
people. Will we have all these under the new guardians? For one, I am 
not willing to try the experiment. 

No man can regret more than I do the break in the party in this 
State. Good and honest meai have gone from us. I tried hard to prevent 
this in the Syracuse convention last fall, but my feeble voice was not 
heeded in the uproar. Had my peace proposition been there adopted, much 
of this could have been prevented; but that is past and the past is irre- 
vocable, and we must now deal with the stern future that is close upon us 
as best we may. Please pardon this long letter. 
Truly, your friend, 

HAMILTON WARD. 



COURSE AS TO GREELEY. 211 

The course adopted by Mr. Ward was that of Repub- 
licans generally and Greeley went to a defeat more over- 
whelming than any in the history of the country. 

In 1873 Mr. Ward took considerable interest in the 
Senatorial contest and rendered much assistance to Col. A. 
J. Wellman, the successful nominee. 

On the 27th day of August, in this year, a second son 
was born at Mrs. Gleason's Water Cure, Elmira, N. Y., and 
was christened John Chamberlain, after Mrs. Ward's father. 

In 1874 Mr. Ward delivered the 4th of July address at 
Salamanca, and often afterwards related with much enjoy- 
ment how the audience suddenly departed to view a fight 
between two Indian squaws in an adjoining field, Salamanca 
being situate on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. In 
this year H. B. Smith was a candidate for a third term in 
Congress ; Harlo Hakes of Steuben was also a candidate. 
The number of delegates apportioned to each county was 
such that Allegany could nominate with the assistance of 
any other of the three Assembly districts. The delegates 
were elected by districts. Mr. Ward supported Mr. Hakes, 
and after a fight secured the Allegany County delegates and 
nominated Hakes, who, however, was defeated at the polls 
by Charles P.. Walker, of Steuben, the Democratic nominee, 
who carried both Chemung and Steuben. 

The early part of the year 1876 was devoted largely by 
Mr. Ward to defending his old friend and associate in Con- 
gress, Dr. H. Van Aernam of Franklinville, Cattaraugus 
County, against charges preferred against him as Commis- 
sioner of Pensions by an "ex-Confederate House," and in 
July both Mr. Ward and his client were examined before the 
House Committee on Pensions. The defence, however, 
was so vigorous that the prosecution was abandoned, and 
the Northern Press commented on Mr. Ward's success in a 
favorable manner. Dr. Van Aernam was a most interesting 
and scholarly man and continued to be one of Mr. Ward's 
warmest friends until his death. 

The Presidential campaign of 1876 was a most exciting 
one. and every effort was put forth by the friends of Roscoe 
Conkling to secure for him the nomination. On May 27th 



212 HAMILTON WARD. 

Alonzo B. Cornell, one of Conkling's campaign managers, 
and later Governor of the State, by letter urged Mr. Ward 
to go to Cincinnati to assist him. He, however, did not go, 
and it is worthy of note that he was never a delegate to a 
National Convention. In this year the county was harmon- 
ious politically and while Mr. Ward had the judicial dele- 
gates the Congressional delegation was for David P. Rich- 
ardson, of Angelica. J. H. Hungerford, of Corning, was 
nominated and later elected. 

In this year began Mr. Ward's contest for a judicial 
nomination, which, although long drawn out, at length had 
a successful termination. 

Since Martin Grover, Allegany had been without a resi- 
dent Supreme Court Justice and much inconvenience had 
been and in the future was to be caused thereby. Therefore 
there was a favorable unanimity of sentiment in the county 
when Mr. Ward's candidacy for that ofBce was announced. 
The Elmira Daily Advertiser of Aug. 21st, 1876, contained 
the following: 

At the recent Republican County Convention of Allegany County, 
delegates were chosen favorable to the nomination, of Hon. Hamilton 
Ward for Justice of the Supreme Court. The vote was by ballot and was 
unanimous, every vote being cast for the delegates favorable to the nom- 
ination of Mr. Ward. This is a tribute to his character and capacity no 
less complimentary than deserved. The following resolutions were also 
unanimously adopted: 

"Resolved, That the delegates chosen to represent the County of 
Allegany in the convention for the 8th Judicial District, when called, are 
respectfully requested to use all honorable means to secure the nomina- 
tion of Hon. Hamilton Ward, as Justice of the Supreme Court. 

Resolved, That this convention accompanies the presentation of their 
distinguished candidate with expressions of fullest confidence in his ability, 
wisdom, integrity and fitness for the high position to which we trust to see 
him elevated." 

We greatly hope that the friends of Mr. Ward will be successful in 
the effort they are making to promote him to the bench. The people of this 
Congressional District remember with satisfaction his long and faithful 
service to them and to the country during the most exciting and decisive 
years of re-construction. Through all those years the eloquent voice of 
?Ir. Ward was always heard for the right, and his vote is recorded for 



A CANDIDATE FOR JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT. 213 

every one of those great and beneficiont measures which constitute the 
crowning glory of the Republican party. His old constituents in Steuben 
and Chemung will rejoice in the probability of h.is once more being called 
to public life. Mr. Ward is not only a true ajid undeviating Republican, 
but he is a learned and able lawyer, a profession to which he has devoted 
himself assiduously since his retirement from Congress. Th;e Judicial Dis- 
trict in which he resides has many eminent lawyers, but none, in our judg- 
ment, who are more thoroughly fitted by public experience, by legal learn- 
ing, by native ability, and by integrity of character, to discharge the duties 
and adorn the office of Justice of the Supreme Court than Hamilton Ward. 
We shall look with a good deal of interest to the result of the Judicial 
Convention, in the hope that a nomination so eminently fit and commend- 
able shall not fail to be consummated. 

As at the present time, the vote in the judicial conven- 
tion was by Assembly districts, each district having two 
delegates. There were fifteen Assembly districts in the 
Eighth Judicial District, and Allegany, with but one district, 
was in the southeast corner. All her political affiliations 
were with the counties east of her and the contest was 
almost a hopeless one. The district was composed of the 
counties of Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, 
Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua, and each county 
had one or more candidates. The convention was held in 
Buffalo, Sept. 17, and was long drawn out. 

Beginning with his two votes, Mr. Ward's strength 
gradually rose until on the 39th ballot he received 1 1 votes. 
The voting continued until 83 ballots had been taken, the 
last of which resulted in the nomination of Albert Haight, 
then County Judge of Erie County, and now one of the 
Judges of the Court of Appeals, and a distinguished jurist. 
Other candidates were Henry A. Childs, of Medina; A. K. 
Potter, of Lockport; L. M. Bangs, of Leroy, and James O. 
Putnam of Buffalo. The result of this convention was loyal- 
ly accepted by the defeated candidates and Judge Haight was 
elected by the usual large Republican majority. 

Mr. Ward's record in Congress was still of much assist- 
ance to him, and the votes which came to him in the judicial 
convention were doubtless somewhat on this account. The 
New York Sun, always Mr. Ward's friend, still remembered 
him, and in a long editorial, Oct. 18, 1876, referred to his 



214 HAMILTON WARD. 

honesty and opposition to improper appropriations, con- 
demning the Repubhcan candidate for President, General 
Rutherford B. Hayes, for his course as a member of the 40th 
Congress in faihng to support Mr. Ward's opposition to 
certain contractors claims for ship building generally ad- 
judged to have been improper and which Mr. Hayes had 
voted to allow. 

On this and other accounts the Sun supported Mr. Til- 
den, the Democratic nominee, who carried New York. 

Mr. Ward attended the Philadelphia Centennial this 
year with his wife and children. 

Almost all of the first half of the year 1877 was given 
up by Mr. Ward to the preparation and trial of the Hendryx 
case, one of the most remarkable murder trials ever held in 
New York State. The tragedy was described in the Wells- 
ville Daily Reporter and Democrat, a special daily paper, 
and the first daily in Allegany County, printed exclusively to 
report the case, as follows : 

"Early on the morning of Friday, July 7th, 1876, the 
citizens of the quiet village of Cuba were thrown into great 
excitement by the report that the house of Henry C. Hen- 
dryx had been entered by burglars during the night, and 
that Mrs. Hendryx had been shot and was in a dying condi- 
tion, and that Mr. H. had been wounded in an encounter 
with the desperadoes. It was alleged that Hendryx's 
pocketbook was found in the yard outside, from which had 
been taken ten dollars. The people of Cuba quite generally 
accepted this theory — though not all. The editor of the 
Patriot visited the scene, and the following is an extract 
from the article which he published concerning it 

Mrs. Hendryx was shot first, the ball undoubtedly being 
intended for him as he sprang from bed to grapple with the 
burglar. The bullet passed through Mr. Hendryx's shirt, 
and entered the abdomen of his wife. Mr. Hendryx fol- 
lowed the assassin to the door, where he was fired upon 
again by, as he thinks, an accomplice of the first assassin. 
The second shot took effect in Mr. H.'s thigh. Mr. Hen- 
dryx also has one of his fingers shot ofT. But whether it 
was done at the time his wife was shot or while he was pur- 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 215 

suip.g" the assassin, he cannot tell. Our entire village and 
the entire town is most fearfully excited over this almost 
double murder. Word of the terrible crime has been tele- 
graphed far and near. Every man has formed himself into 
a \'igilance committee. A crime of this magnitude perpe- 
trated in our quiet village, on one of the most prominent and 
rcspeciable families here, has shocked the entire community, 
and all are wild with excitement. 

Mrs. H. lived a few days, suffering intense agony, and 
died As investigation proceeded, the mystery deepened. 
As the mystery increased, excitement multiplied. Notwith- 
standing Hendryx's friends accepted in general terms the 
theory whch he presented, there were a few who did not, and 
although the excitement gradually subsided (the Coroner's 
jury failing to elicit sufficient proof to censure him) there 
were those who believed a foul wife murder had been com- 
mitted, and who quietly set about investigating the case. 

The relatives and friends of Mrs. Hendryx appeared 
before the grand jury at Angelica at the October term, a 
little more than three months after the murder, armed with 
sufificient evidence to procure the indictment of Hendryx. 

It was made to appear to the grand jury that the theory 
of a burglary and murder was inconsistent and unreason- 
able ; that a brave and faithful watch-dog in the house had 
given no alarm of such an approach ; that, although himself 
only slightly wounded, Hendryx gave no alarm from 2 
A. M., the hour of the shooting, until daylight or after; that 
three shots had been fired that same night, according to ad- 
mission, from Hendryx's revolver, after daylight, as he 
claimed, to rouse the neighbors; that an intimacy was known 
to have existed between the prisoner and a certain Mary 
Webber — "Molly," as he spoke of her — both before and 
after the shooting, which was unbecoming and suspicious, 
8zc. 

Hendryx was much excited during the sitting of the 
grand jury. He came to the jury and counseled with friends 
to aid him. and here was arrested while awaiting the result. 
From that time to the present he has remained in the jail at 
Angelica awaiting the trial w^hich has now begun." 



216 HAMILTON WARD. 

The defendant, Henry C. Hendryx, was a farmer of 
about 32 years of age, a resident of the town of Cuba, and of 
good reputation. His wife had formerly been a Miss Ams- 
den, of one of the prosperous famihes in the county, and was 
highly respected. The woman, Mary Webber, was a re- 
spectable widow, a first cousin of Hendryx and a resident of 
Cazenovia, Madison County, N. Y. Perhaps no case ever 
tried in Western New York created more interest. Cer- 
tainly Allegany County was never so much aroused. The 
local papers reported the trial in a way which would have 
done credit to a metropolitan journal, and to some extent 
satisfied the curiosity of those who were unable to gain an 
entrance to the Court room. The District Attorney of the 
county, C. N. Flenagin, retained as counsel for the people 
Hamilton Ward and Frank Sullivan Smith, a son of Wil- 
liam Smith of Angelica, one of the political leaders of the 
county. Frank Smith was an energetic, studious young 
man, and took charge of the medical side of the case, which 
was quite extensive. He has since become one of the lead- 
ers of the New York bar. For the defendant, 'Horlace 
Bemis, of Hornellsville, was the principal counsel, and asso- 
ciated with him were E. D. Loveridge, Robert Armstrong, 
and Harlan J. Swift of Cuba, and O. S. Vreeland of Sala- 
manca. Judge George Barker of Fredonia presided, and 
Elisha B. Green and Charles H. Beckwith were the Justices 
of Sessions. 

The first trial was held at Belmont and Court opened 
Monday afternoon, July 22nd. The jury was drawn in three 
hours. Its members were : Ira G. Lesuer, Boliver ; Lewis 
H. Ackernian, Willing ; Luke B. Mason, Genesee ; Perry 
Wilber. Boliver; W. A. Hewitt. Willing; Frank Krusen, 
Willing! Willis Bower, Amity; Erastus F. Root, Genesee; 
John Foster, Wellsville; Andrew J. Armstrong, Genesee; 
William B. Green, Independence, and Andrew J. Griggs, In- 
dependence. 

The trial lasted two weeks and attracted attention all 
over the United States. Both Hendryx and Mrs. Webber 
were sworn, and unfalteringly denied the charges made 
against them. The jury retired on Saturday, February 3rd, 



HENDKYX ]*IUKDEK TKIxiL. 217 

and on Monday, February 5tli, was discharged by the Court, 
having- reported its inabihty to agree upon a verdict. It was 
understood that ten voted for conviction, one for acquittal 
and one uncertain. The juror voting for acquittal was the 
foreman, Lewis H. Ackerman, of WilHng, wdio it was said 
shared the pecuHar spirituahstic beiefs of the defendant. 

Both the prosecution and the defense immediately pre- 
pared for another trial, and at the next term of the Court 
of Oyer and Terminer, which was held in Angelica, in June, 
the case was moved. Judge Albert Haight, then in the first 
year of service, presided, and his fairness and impartiality 
gave general satisfaction. The counsel were the same as 
on the first trial and the jury drawn to try the case was as 
follows : 

Charles B. Kendall. Arthur Clark. Granger. 

Paul Dow, Rushford. Daniel Bennett, Granger. 

Thomas Ewart, Grove. John Grunder, Jr., Grove. 

Martin M. Mills. Samuel Thornton, Grove. 

Martin Lyon, Rushford. Andrew J. Fenner, Almond. 

Humphry Dunning Burns. Calvin J. Jenks, Grove. 

After three weeks trial, 72 witnesses being sw^orn by the 
people and 53 for the defendant, the jury, after a brief delib- 
eration, returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the 2nd 
degree, and the Court sentenced the prisoner to imprison- 
ment in Auburn State Prison for life, in wdiich prison he still 
exists. Mr. Ward's summing up in this second trial w^as one 
of his greatest efforts, and has fortunately been preserved. 

ARGUMENT OF HAMILTON WARD. 

May it please the Court and Gentlemen of the Jury: The Grand 
Jury of this County have presented to you for trial, Henry C. Hendryx for 
the murder of his wife. The District Attorney, in the discharge of his 
duty as one of the people, and as the representative of the people, has 
brought the case on for trial. 

Under the law of the State, by the appoiutment of the County Judge, 
and at the request of the District Attorney, I have been associated with 
him, to represent with him the people in this prosecution. 

No private parties are here except the defendant. No persecution is 
here against him. No feeling of malignity is represented by us. We do 



218 HAMILTON WARD. 

not represent the Amsdens; we do not represent the Hendryxs. We repre- 
sent the people. 

We have but one duty, gentlemen, under our oaths to perform, as 
you have, and that is to see that this prisoner has a fair, honest and im- 
partial trial. If he is innocent we do not want him convicted. If he is 
guilty we demand that the law shall be vindicated and society protected. 
We entered upon this case with no other feeling or desire. We desire that 
the public shall be protected. That he shall have al! the benefits and sweet 
charities of the law, and all the presumptions in his favor that it gives 
him, and that the people shall have all the protection that it gives them. 

We recognize this as one of the most solemn cases that has ever come 
before a human tribunal, and we have pursued it day by day, week by 
week, hoping and hoping — hoping gentlemen, that somehow, in some way, 
a light would fall upon us, as it did upon Saul, of Tarsus, as he journeyed 
toward Damascus, that should lighten up this unfortunate man's case, and 
should point out in some way that some other man had done this deed be- 
sides him. 

We have waited for his counsel to speak and have listened to him 
carefully. We have heard all the witnesses; we have sympathy for that 
aged mother that sits by his side, with that sweet devotion that a mother 
only can have; we have sympathized with the friends that have come from 
a distance to stand by him through this trying ordeal, and we respect them. 
We have sympathized with the aged father of the murdered woman, as he 
stood upon the stand, testifying with trembling voice and choking accent. 
We have sympathized with the sisters and brothers, as they came before 
us, one after another; and it is a case that peculiarly calls for all of the 
softest sympathies of our nature. But, gentlemen, we are bound to say, 
that we have nothing to do with any of these considerations. This is not 
a question of feeling, or of sympathy. And you full-grown and middle-aged 
men, men who have all the responsibilities which society and the laws 
have imposed upon you, must consider this question upon its merits, upon 
the evidence, and as that evidence points, so you must decide. And if 
consequences come — consequences that are painful, we have only to remem- 
ber that we have done our duty, and that we have nothing to do with the 
consequences. And if men will violate law— commit the highest crimes 
known to the law, break the peace of society, and the good order of a 
community, and strike at the very vitals of society— although they entail 
misfortune upon their friends— still, duty, mauifest, unflinching and stern 
duty confronts us and we must do what is right, and what the law de- 
mands. 

Now, gentlemen, I will proceed to examine the questions involved 
in this case. I do not expect to speak of them all, and I ask of you, if I 
should omit anything, that you will not think I attach no importance to it. 



HENDKYX MUKDER TRIAL. 219 

for you will see that in the short time I shall occupy in this case, I have not 
the opportunity to attend to everythiui;. We have sworn over a hundred 
■witnesses and spent three weeks' time in the trial of this cause, and it can- 
not to be expected that it can all be crystallized together in the time that I 
shall occupy in addressing you. 

On the night of the 6th of July, 1870, in a little house upon a hill 
side about a mile from the village of Cuba, lived the prisoner and his wife, 
his little boy, a hired man, and a woman of whom I shall speak bye and 
bye. Although this woman had been at this house every night right along 
from the month of May, so far as we know, except when the prisoner 
took her out riding, or took her on a visit to other places, — yet by the con- 
ceded evidence in the case, and as she herself swears, for prudential rea- 
•sons of her own she was absent on the night of the 6th. The hired man 
was also gone, and he explained the reason of his absence; he was gone to 
visit his family. We see Mrs. Hendryx the evening before in the village 
of Cuba with her husband, and so far as the evidence goes, that was the 
last cheerful hour of her life. They have taken occasion to prove that at 
that time she was joyful. The next occasion that we call your attention 
to is at their house, where these three persons, the prisoner, his wife and 
little boy, occupy that house alone. About two o'clock in the morning, 
from the statement of the prisoner, his wife is fatally shot by his side. 
Shot, while sleeping in his own bed, and so far as this case shows, no 
other human being was there, except himself and the little boy. The first 
person we find there in the morning is Mary Webber, and she discovers 
nobody there except this prisoner, his wife and little boy. That the woman 
received the murderous shot then and there, is conceded, the shot of which 
she died. And so far, although a year has elapsed; a winter's snow has 
come and gone; spring has brought its flowers with their fragrance; and 
the summer time has now come with its bloom and beauty, and thousands 
and thousands of minds have been trying to discover the murderer of 
Cynthia Hendryx; detectives have been brought into use; the jails and 
prisons have been ransacked; they have examined and looked with that 
keen scent with which men will look when they are on the track of blood; 
and yet, gentlemen of the jury, suspicion points to no one but the prisoner. 
No one else is found upon whose head rests the least taint of suspicion. 
Even the vagabonds whom Mr. Swift followed, turned out to be myths. 
His Honor would have rejected their evidence if I had objected to it, but 
I did not want to do that. If there was any evidence pointing to anyone else 
I wanted it to come out. But it conies back to this, and back to this only, 
that every time the finger swept around the dial it settles at last and rests 
upon a single spot. (Pointing to the prisoner.) Men were reluctant to ac- 
cept this conclusion. This man had served his country well upon the battle 
field. He had been kind to his parents. He had borne a good reputation in 



220 HAMILTON WARD. 

the community. If they could have got rid of the ugly fact that the life of 
as sweet, pure and upright a woman as God ever created had been foully 
taken away, it would have been different. There would have been no need 
of putting this county to this vast amount of expense. But they could not 
do that. Everything was shaped to that man's mind and in his interest 
until he was arrested. The coroner's jury met. They did not want to 
fasten the stain upon him. They were made up of his friends, companions 
and neighbors, some from the same secret organization that he belonged 
to. And even in the face of all the terrible evidence that enveloped him 
they did not want to fasten the guilt uponi him, and charged the shooting 
on some person unknown. Dr. Ashley tried to take Hendryx to the door 
that morning and adjust the shirt, and see if the wounds on his person 
could not have been done by an outsider. The old man Amsden with 
broken heart and trembling limbs hesitated before he accused him. Mrs. 
Grove, with her dark suspicious and the knowledge she had, hesitated; 
they all hesitated, but still it grew. You cannot tell how, nor why, but still 
it grew. The little cloud soon overspread the whole Heavens. That great 
mysterious process by which human life is to be preserved and this temble 
crime punished was at work; and that is the reason that "murder will out." 
Hide it as you may, bury it as you may, "blood will tell"; and human in- 
stinct will work out the murderer. It has worked him out in this case gen- 
tlemen of the jury. We are told this man's character is good. Indeed, it 
was. Had there been the least taint upon his character he would have 
been arrested the next morning and without delay. 

Now gentlemen how did this man fall? He had a good wife, a bright 
child and a pleasant home, they say. How did he fall? Ah, gentlemen, 
how did our first parents fall? How have many men fallen, all through the 
checkered periods of the world's history? The page of history is filled 
with the overthrow of the bright lights of the world. And we have seen 
the tombstone raised over the good name of many a fallen friend, who 
has gone step by step, down into his moral death. It is not limited to any 
particular time of life, the youth and middle aged alike succumb, and it 
is a danger which surrounds us all; all who are frail human beings. And it 
becomes us all to watch with vigilant eye, lest in an unwary moment we 
may be destroyed. 

In the fall of 1875 a woman came into that section for the purpose 
of attending the funeral of a relative. She came prepared to stay but a 
short time, bringing but a scanty wardrobe. There seems to have been 
but little acquaintance between her and the prisoner, although they were re- 
lated. They had lived apart from each other all their lives, and when 
they came together they met almost as strangers. There was nothing par- 
ticular in their relationship that should keep them apart, because we know 
that it is not am uncommon thing for marriage to take place between 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 221 

cousins. It seems that soon after she came here she began to get pretty 
well acquainted with the prisoner. 

Of course we cannot point out all the little stages and approaches by 
which the deed was brought about. These little things are not always 
published or put into a newspaper, but at any rate, we know this, that in 
May, a short time before the application to insure the life of Cynthia 
Hendryx, these two people took a ride to Franklinville. I'revious to that 
they had a long consultation in the barn. Mrs. Hendryx wanted to go to 
Franklinville. The hired man, Kimball, offered to do the milking if they 
would get a man to help and let her go, but she was not permitted to do 
so. They had the ride. That was for some purpose. They had a con- 
versation in the barn. That was for some purpose. So in April when it 
was cold these people were setting up in the barn. Was it "Cousinly 
Affection"? Was it "pure womanly instinct" that prompted all this? And 
then, gentlemen of the jury, what do we have? We have the application 
to insure the life of Cynthia Hendryx for two thousand dollars, dated the 
19th day of May; after the barn scene; after the ride to Franklinville when 
Mrs. Hendryx was not permitted to go. What else do we have, gentlemen? 
We have the application to insure Mr. Henry Hendryx against accident. 
Prudent man, is he not? Too poor to pay the premium. Had to give his 
note for it. Never had been insured in his life before. Mrs. Hendryx was 
a strong, healthy woman. Himself a strong, healthy man. Mrs. Hendryx 
31, and he 32. In the prime of life. In the very vigor of manhood and 
womanhood. Why when a man gets his life insured it is for the benefit of 
his family; to protect them in case of his decease. Did you ever hear of 
a man's getting his wife's life insured to protect himself? He knows and 
feels, if he is a good and true man and husband, that so long as his right 
arm is spared, and his heart is right, he can take care of that woman and 
child. He does not have to go and hunt up an insurance company, and give 
his note for the policy. I do not claim that he insured his wife simply to 
get the insurance, but it was part of the murderous scheme and a link in 
the terrible chain that is being wound around this prisoner. 

Then we have them down to Mr. Kinney's and Mr. Hendryx talked 
about going down the river. And I am now giving Mrs. Webber's state- 
ment. You will remember that the principal witness in this matter is in 
the grave; her voice is forever still in death. Silently she sleeps, in that 
sleep which knows no waking. But Mary Webber is here. She tells us 
that when Mrs. Hendryx talked about going down the river, that she sug- 
gested tliat she should stay and keep house for her. And she did stay and 
keep house. And what housekeeping it was gentlemen. There was hoj.-i- 
keeeping seven days, and a ride four nights out of seven; and one day ride. 
Four night rides and one day ride, and Kimball says, that they came in at 
9, 10 and 11 o'clock at night, and Mrs. Webber does not deny it. Now I 



222 HAMILTON WARD. 

don't know but this is all "cousinly" and right, but, did you ever have such 
a cousin; and if you did, do you think your wife would be perfectly passive 
and calm under the circumstances? Don't you think pretty soon after that, 
you would get the precise hint Cynthia Hendryx gave her husband at the 
breakfast table, about a week before she died? 

What else? Why they go to Pennsylvania, and Kimball says that 
Mrs. Hendryx wanted to go with him, and Hendryx put her off. And 
Mrs. Webber does not deny that, gentlemen. Of course, they couldn't claim 
but what he was telling the truth, when he is supported by such an im- 
maculate institution as she is. They go to Pennsylvania. They ride to- 
gether. One lady saw them in an attitude which she says she did not think 
was just the thing for a man with another than his wife. Counsel thinks 
he could risk himself under similar circumstances without committing any 
sin, and do it in such a way that even the most refined lady would not im- 
pute any thing improper to it; but there was something in that occurrence 
that struck the witness that it was not proper. 

Now what were these people talking about all the time? Counsel 
says they might have been at home, or gone into the back lots, if they had 
any improper intentions. No, no, gentlemeni, the thing was in the glow; 
it was a new thing. The blood was fevered. There was something that 
had taken complete hold of this man. In his daily routine about the farm, 
attending to his duties, he had lived peaceful and quiet with the young 
■woman that was his wife. They had lived in peace, and the tempter had 
never come to him before. If he had been a '"man of the world"; been 
accustomed to intrigues and licentiousness; if he had walked about with 
the sisters of shame and death; it would not have been, so apt to have taken 
hold of him. It was a new thing. These rides were rides of pleasure. 
What did they talk about on the trip to Pennsylvania? What did they talk 
about two or three hours in that bed room, on that bed that was "mussed" 
at Stannard's Corners? Gentlemen of the jury, they were concocting the 
•murder of Cynthia Hendryx. 

It is true gentlemen, that every feature of the evidence, whether it 
comes from the people's side, or from the prisoner's, throws a lurid light 
upon this dark, foul deed, and upon these actors. Now they come back, 
and I am not going to trifle with this jury by saying that this evidence does 
not establish improper relations between the prisoner and Mrs. Webber. If 
this evidence does not establish such a state of things, nothing will estab- 
lish it. If you refuse to believe Mrs. Dodge, Mrs. A^msden, and Kimball, 
and all the other witnesses in this case, that point out these adulterous 
relations on this road of crime, then no argument on my part will do it. 
I assume that the moral nature of the man was crushed. That the serpent 
had entered his Eden; that another woman had obtained the mastery over 
him. And now, gentlemen, he enters upon the broad path of death and 
boll. A path full of quicksands and pitfalls. He enters upon an ocean of 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 223 

storms and tempests, without rudder, or compass; and) after that his 
wanderings are manifold and terrible. His sins are piled up like mountains 
one upon another. And so it is, gentlemen of the jury, when a man departs 
from the path of integrity and truth; when he leaves the circle of his family 
and goes out in the world in pursuit of other associations; he hardly knows, 
— and I have almost said, God hardly knows, — what he will do. 

But to come back to the case, he procures this insurance. That was a 
bye play; an instrument. The great thing was to get possession of this 
other woman. But counsel says he had possession of her already, and he 
says it is wonderful to him why he should have done this deed for her. 
And he asks why is this, again and again. 

Gentlemen, that was a question that was asked a great many years 
ago; asked by a wise and godly man; and you will find it recorded in holy 
Writ. He says, "there be three things which are too wonderful for me, 
yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a 
serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the 
way of a man with a maid." That is the thing that confounds my friend 
on the other side. He does not understand the last. It was not understood 
thousands of years ago. It will never be understood. There was some- 
thing about this besides mere affection aind sentimentalism. I am not going 
to say that after the death of Mrs. Hendryx that all these meetings meant 
illicit intercourse. Counsel says, if this man was guilty, why so open and 
so bold? I say, gentlemen, there was a deeper reason and a different 
feeling than all that, 

A murder had been committed. Suspicious eyes were upon this pris- 
oner and that woman. The house was thronged night rnd day. Suspicions 
came upon every breeze, and permeated every crevice of that house. They 
had entered the zigzag path of crime, and as soon as a man does that he 
loses his self-control, and acts in an unnatural manner; and, gentlemen of 
the jury, that is one of the means pointed out by Providence for the de- 
tection of crime. All criminals are foolish. No man or woman has got 
head enough to commit murder and carry it through successfully. This man 
had committed murder, and this woman knew it. Why were they in the 
bedroom two or three times a day? W^hy did she interrupt him when he and 
Mr. Bruce were talking? Why did she interrupt two or three other wit- 
nesses in their conversation with the prisoner? Why were they at the barn 
together? And why did they lay by each others side? It was because 
they were carrying a terrible secret. They could look to no one else; and 
the storm was gathering, and the heavens were lurid, and black; and they 
came together whenever they could to console each other. It was not the 
mere desire of illicit intercourse that they thought upon. They had buried 
a household, and now he was in the deep sea of trouble floundering in all 
directions. 



224 HAMILTON WARD. 

Now, what is done? Mr. Bruce is waited upon two or three times, 
and enquired of about this insurance. Counsel has told you that Mr. Heu- 
dryx did not suppose that the insurance matter was all right. I tell you, as 
I understand the evidence of Bruce that he did substantially inform Mr. 
Hendryx that the thing was in just as good a position as if the policy had 
come and the note had been given. That his rights would be just as per- 
fect. And what does this man ask Bruce? Gentlemen, did you weigh that? 
It weighs a ton in this case. "If anything should happen Mr. Bruce; if 
any thing happen are the policies good?" Mr. Bruce assures him that it is 
just the same as if the policy had been received and paid for. Now it is 
true that the like policy was not made payable to him, but it was not 
his fault. He tried to get it made payable to himself. Tried to get his poor 
■wife to have it made payable to him. And, gentlemen, the accident assuv- 
ance policy of his covered a double idea. First, it would give him a weekly 
allowance by and by when he should shoot his hand and leg; and in tlie 
second place he could claim it was payable to his wife, a pretext to have 
hers made payable to him. 

And the counsel on the other side has got a name for every body on 
the People's side. Kimball is a "hell-hound"; all the Amsdens are per- 
jured; Maggie Hawson is a "perjured wretch;" Bruce is a "detective;" and 
your humble servant a "popinjay." And I suppose when the history of 
this case is written, we shall step out in our new character, and the counsel 
will be entitled to a patent for his invention. It is very easy to call people 
names, anybody can do that. 

Gentlemen, Mr. Bruce has detected more rascals and sent more crim- 
inals to State Prison than any other man in the county. I have known him 
for years, and if we had a man like him in every community to look after 
rascals, and devote his time to the preservation of the public 
peace, to the preservation of your family and mine, we should 
not have so much crime. Perhaps we should not have had this long 
trial. Now, what does this man Bruce say? He says the prisoner came 
to him two or three times and talked with him about it. Wasn't this in- 
surance an item in the case? While Mrs. Hendryx was there with this 
bullet in her kidney, and was mourning, and mourning, and was asking for 
him, when he was closted in the bedroom with his paramour; when she was 
languishing in death, what was he doing? Ah, the insurance was on, his 
mind! He didn't seem to have an opportunity to weep just then. None of 
the thirty witnesses that can swear to just the number of tears on his 
cheek didn't seem to be around at that time. What was he doing? Why 
after Mrs. Webber had taken him into the bedroom and put down his panta- 
loons, and adjusted that bandage at this delicate place, he was ready for 
business. He goes out and wants to have his wife assign this policy to him. 
This was this grief stricken man, gentlemen; this was the man that counsel 



HEXDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 225 

says bowed his head by the side of the dead face of his wife and wept until 
he was taken out. He jroes to the old man Amsden to have him get his wife 
to assign it and he rejects him, and then he goes for Mrs. Philbrick. And 
counsel has a name for her too; he tells us with a great deal of satisfaction 
on his face, how completely he has demolished Mrs. Philbrick. I have 
known Mrs. Philbrick for many years, more than I have the coimsel. She 
was an ho-nored wife and mother, in my village for many years. Her 
daughter married one of these 'prejudiced' Amsdens, and she happened to 
be on the scene of the murder about as early as any one, and against her 
will, the people have brought her here to testify. And I suppose it is per- 
mitted by the law, for the counsellor to abuse all these ladies. And the 
first thing that be did was to miss-quote her. I tried to correct him. Not- 
withstanding the terrible admonition that I kad received but a little while 
before, I undertook to correct him; and he turned upon me in a manner I 
haven't got over yet. The shock upon my nerves was great. But I will 
correct him now, gentlemen, and will say to him here and now, that I do 
not desire to make any misstatements; and I will thank him to interrupt me 
at any time that he thinks I am doing so; and I have no doubt he will only 
interrupt me when he honestly thinks I am mistaken. 

Now counsel goes at her, and when she expresses some i-eluctance to 
tell what she went into the bedroom for, counsel says she would not tell 
him why she went in. That is a pretty broad assertion. I undertook to 
tell him that was not her statement when I received the crack over the 
head from w'hich I am now suffering. 

What A[rs. Philbrick said was, 'I don't think I am obliged to tell.' 
I have it from the Reporter's minutes; and it seems to me if he wants 
to be fair, he would not have stated it in the way he did. If it be true that 
learned lawyers can go at witnesses with pick-axe and shovel, and wit- 
nesses sit patiently by and say nothing, why then perhaps Mrs. Philbrick 
was wrong in resenting; but, gentlemen, I think if there were more Rena 
Amsdens in the world, that could scalp two lawyers at one shot, there 
would be less impudence and abuse of witnesses when upon the stand, by 
lawyers. 

Now I go back to the bedside scene concerning this policy. The old 
man said, 'I don't care about that now,' 'I don't want her disturbed with 
that now.' It seems to me that the husband would have thought of that. 
I don't believe, gentlemen of the jury, if burglars got into your house and 
shot your wife to death, that you would be looking up her father the next 
day to get him to go into her bedroom to get her to assign an insurance 
policy upon her life to you. The old man calls Mrs. Philbrick, and she goes 
in to that suffering woman, who is struggling between life and deatli; be- 
tween hope and fear. Oh, she wanted to live; the world witli its bright 



226 HAMILTON WARD. 

scenes to her young hopeful heart was very dear. She was the mother of 
as bright a little boy as ever God gave a mother. She felt she was in 
danger of death, still she hoped to live; and there was only one soul in all 
that town, one spirit in all that locality that had any other feeling but 
what she should live, and that nothing should come between her and that 
quivering hope, to lift her back to life; and the only hope for her recovery 
was absolute composure and quiet. There was only one that wanted her 
to realize that she might die, and that was Henry Hendryx. And so he 
proposes to have her last minutes tormented by the assignment of the in- 
surance policy. Don't tell me this insurance has no part in this tranaction. 
Mrs. Philbrlck goes into that bedroom, leans over the bed. Martin Grove 
follows a little behind. What is done? Does Hendryx stay in the parlor? 
No. He follows after and with the stealthy tread of a cat he goes in there 
to overawe her and says something, and she looked at him and repeats the 
old story that had been put into her lips before: 'Well if Henry's policy 
runs to me, it is no more than right that mine should run to him.' 

Now, gentlemen, I think that the understanding was existing between 
these two; — that out of this insurance money they were to go abroad beyond 
the reach of this scandal, and there enjoy the fruits of that crime. This 
woman was a poor sewing woman without a cent. They wanted money 
with which to operate in their new field; and hence it was that he was not 
willing his wife should die and he only receive one-third of the insurance, 
and his little boy two-thirds; but he wanted it assigned over to him so 
that he could enjoy it with his paramour. Gentlemen, am I right? Can 
you conceive of any other reason for this scene at the bedside? Now, gen- 
tlemen, what else? On the 6th of July they go to old Mr. Amsden's; there 
was great propriety in going there the day before the murder. There was 
great propriety in showing attention to his wife the day before. Has not 
the evidence already disclosed to you that this man was a man of invention, 
and a scheming man? He calculates things beforehand. He is planning. 
If you are not satisfied of this you will be before you get through with this 
matter. Now I am speaking of premeditation; because before the people 
can convict of murder in the first degree they must show premeditation. 
Now upon the 3d or 4th of July, that poor wife took her last journey 
down to Cuba village, on foot,— to do what? They prove it. 

They wanted to prove it. She took her last journey down there on 
foot to buy this wretch some strawberries because she said his appetite 
was poor. Poor soul. Her last sun is about setting upon her, and she 
trudges to the village to get strawberries for the husband of her youth and 
the father of her child. Where was the carriage that had taken Mrs. 
Webber out four or five times a week? Where was her husband at that 
time? There was something on this man's mind, gentlemen; and when a 



HENDIIYX MURDER TRIAL. 227 

man has something on his mind that troubles him it does afifect his appe- 
tite. But where was he when his wife was going for this luxury for him? 
Up in the woods practicing. This is the weapon. [Exhibits the revolver 
to the jury.] Why this Irishman that they have brought here says he was 
sitting down by himself. He didn't know what he was doing. He had his 
boots off, and the Irishman thinks he was paring his nails I with his revolver 
by his side. 

Did he go up there to shoot "chipmucks," as he says? We don't 
generally shoot chipmucks with this sort of a weapon, do we? The Irish- 
man on the other trial swore there was only one shot fired; and since that 
first trial he thinks there might have been two shots. He has been talking 
lately with Counsellor Swift. There were seven charges in this pistol. 
When he took it up in the woods that day there were seven loaded barrels. 
When Isaac Amsden found it the next morning after the wife was shot, 
there were seven empty chambers. What was this shot up in the woods 
for? They have taken occasion to show that cartridges are not always 
reliable. They will get damp and out of order. Didn't he want to know 
if the cartridges were in order and the pistol all right? 

Now there was to be a trial of mowing machines July Gth at Isaac 
Amsden's. I do not know whether he was invited or not, but we have 
reason to believe that he went over there for the sake of appearances. He 
took his wife with him. That same premeditation that made him try his 
pistol in the woods, made him go with his wife to Isaac Amsden's. As 
he sat at the table, tliey noticed that he was nervous; that his hand shook. 
There was gathering upon him the murkiness of hell and murder. Brave 
as he is, and courageous as his army comrades have proved him to be, he 
shook a little as he looked into the face of his wife; and she gazed anxiously 
upon him. Did you ever go anywhere and have something happen to you? 
Would not your wife discover it first of all? The wife hovers over her 
husband like a guardian angel. She saw that his mind was troubled. That 
man that was to send her to the grave with this deadly weapon. She saw 
the guilty flush upon his brow, that will not be removed forever. The next 
day she saw the stain of murder upon his hand, which "all the rain in the 
sweet heavens" can not wash out. They came home that night. 

And now we reach the crisis in this matter. 

Mary Webber, as I told you before; — and I ask your pardon for re- 
peating it; — I don't know why they proved it, for unless they too were 
moved by this silent impulse which always brings out the truth, that mys- 
terious influence which no man can account for; but they proved that sho 
left there that night for prudential reasons of her own. It would not do to 
have her there. Now he goes to bed, and where does he lie, gentlemen of 
the jury? He tells witness that he was in the habit of sleeping on the 



228 HAMILTON WARD. 

fore side; that on that uight he was on the back side, and why he was 
there, or how he got there he did not know. You see gentlemen on this 
map where the bed was. Close to the wall on one end and one side. If 
he had been on the fore side, and his wife was shot, how could he have said 
that it was burglars that did it. He knew better, and so he tells this bung- 
ling story, that he was on the back side. It was for a double purpose. 
First, to show that his wife was shot by others, who were ou the fore side 
of the bed. Second, community would think the burglars shot at her mis- 
taking her for him. He had sense enough to know that if he was on the 
fore side of the bed, others would say he would have received the shot first. 
Here was more premeditation. 

Gentlemen, so far I believe I have stated undisputed facts. It is an 
undisputed fact in this case that this pistol was in the bedroom that night. 
That it lay there with cartridges in it, within four feet of the bed. There 
had been one cartridge discharged, and there were six remaining in it. He 
was there with his wife alone, so far as the evidence shows, and he had 
this weapon, of the right calibre, and capable of producing this result. And 
there were the physicians, who, with their great cruel knives dig into this 
poor woman's body and find the bullet, and that bullet fits his pistol. 
Counsel tells you there are a great many 22-lOOth cartridges. That is triie, 
but when you consider that this pistol was by his side, that the ball found 
in her body fits it, and that he was out in the woods shooting the day before, 
the conviction comes to you, it all tells you, that he was the guilty man who 
did the deed. Is there any dispute about this? We have a man entangled 
in the meshes of a strange woman; we have the insurance policy; we have 
a midnight murder; the ball in her body fitting his pistol; then we have 
the extraordinary circumstance of his being on the back side of the bed. 
Do you need more? Though he bore all the good character that Satan had 
before he was cast out of Paradise, it would be damning. I tell you, gen- 
tlemen, this case is stronger than though a dozen witnesses stood by and 
saw it. Counsel complains about circumstantial evidence, and says that 
there are one hundred and fifty cases where men have been hung innocently; 
has he said anything about the tens of thousands of cases where guilty m'^n 
have been hung? Has he said anything about the thousands of guilty men 
who have gone clear through the neglect, misconduct or stupidity of jurors? 
Why, here the counsel is calHng Maggie Hanson a "perjured wretch," upon 
circumstantial evidence. How? Because they claim she could not see into 
Claytie's room from the place where she said she stood. Yet you must not 
convict this guilty man upon circumstantial evidence. Circumstances like 
these point unerringly to the truth as plain as characters graven upon the 
heavens in broad clear light, so that "he who rims may read;" and if 
you cannot depend upon such circumstantial evidence as this is, you might 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 229 

as well abandon your prisons, and open their doors, anl let every prisoner 
go free. It has always been the argument of criminal lawyers, when in 
a desperate strait, either that their client was crazy, or that he should 
not be convicted upon circumstantial evidence. 

Why do they not put the little boy Clay tie on the stand? They have 
had possession of him for months. He is old enough to tell. Nobody but 
Mary Webber is put upon the stand that knows anything about this busi- 
ness. 

Now, gentlemen, what further have you in this case? The prisoner is 
found in the morning at the house. The wife is alone in her agony. It 
does not appear where the little boy was. He claims to be very much 
shocked and grieved, but certainly feels encouraged when this woman 
comes. Now the question is asked, why kill such a woman as his v/ife was, 
for such a woman as Mary Webber? That is their question. I don't know, 
gentlemen, what you would do; or what I would do. I don't know what 
the learned counsel would do under such circumstances. Perhaps most of 
men would not commit murder. But there was that breakfast scene; there 
was this guilty woman; there was the gentle wife. This proud, high- 
spirited woman had some talk with this man at the breakfast table, a week 
before .she is shot. It was in the presence of Kimball, to be sure. But 
who was Kimball? He wasn't our man. The people have had nothing to 
do with him. He was the defendant's hired man. Kimball was honorable, 
and knew enough for him to employ him. He tells two or three witnesses 
that Kimball was a good boy. Counsel tells you that we brought Kimball 
here; and that he is a "perjured scoundrel." and "hell hound," and for that 
reason you should damn and taint the whole case. Gentlemen, it was the 
duty of the District Attorney, who has prepared this case with singular 
tare and great fidelity, and has shown an ability in this case that even 
his most intimate friends did not suppose he possessed; it was his duty to 
bring him here; to bring Fred Hanson and Maggie Hanson here. Do you 
believe that the District Attorney would induce this man to commit per- 
jury? Away with such ideas! They are just as vague and unsubstantial 
as all the counsel's talk, and are unbecoming and indecent. Counsel says 
Kimball did not swear to that before the Grand Jury. There he is mis- 
taken again. There is no proof that he did not swear to it; and I aflSrm that 
he did swear to it before the Grand Jury. He makes great merriment of 
this poor man because he didn't fix the time exactly then, as he does now. 
What did he say? "They all got to talking at him and he hardly knew his 
head from his heels." If you have been a witness before a Grand Jury, 
you know something of it; and his expression is, "they all got to chanking 
at him and he hardly knew what he was about." You can understand this. 
He don't fail in any material statement, and when he is confirmed on three 



230 HAMILTON WARD. 

important points by this interesting woman, Mary Webber, I say they 
cannot but say his statement is entitled to belief. 

I say that Kimball is entitled to credit. Has Bruce got him to com- 
mit perjury? Has Dr Young? Has the District Attorney? Has Isaac 
Amsden suborned him? In the name of Heaven then who has induced 
him to commit perjury? Nobody. If this were a private controversy, then 
there might be a reason for it. But they say he has a prejudice towards 
this man because he could not get his pay. How absurd. No, no, that man 
told the truth, and he did not tell half of the truth; if he had been as 
shrewd an observer as Mrs. Hanson was, he would have seen more. But he 
did hear the breakfast scene and nobody contradicts it. One week before 
the murder Mrs. Hendryx did say: "That woman must leave or I will;" 
an he dlid say: "I furnish the provisions and I will keep what woman 
here I please." Suppose such a thing had come up in your family. Sup- 
pose you were in guilty liason with a woman, and brought her right into 
your own house, and two weeks before had brought her trunk and indi- 
cated that she was settled there for life. Would your wife rebel? The 
climax would come pretty quick. What would you do? You would have 
to choose between those two women. The life insurance policy had been 
written. The long conferences and nides have been had. The new affection 
has taken absolute, absorbing and overwhelming possession of him. There 
was no satiety for his lust. The Devil was in his blood, and fire in his 
veins; and he choose between these women then. Some men would have 
run away to a foreign country and there enjoyed their illegitimate affection 
with their partner in crime. Some commit murder. In olden time they 
used to poisoni. But the skill and science of the chemist would seek out 
the arsenic, and many a man has been hung, who has tried to get rid of 
his wife in that way, and many a man with good character, too. That 
method, if conceived by the prisoner, was abandoned. But he was a man 
of schemes, and a plotter. Ah! we must have burglars! And under the 
cover of night, and under the pretext of burglars, he shot his wife. Is not 
that the fact? They say there was the most unrestrained affection between 
this wife and Mary Webber, and when we put a witness on the stand to 
call out the words of this wife, to get her statement, two learned coun- 
sellors spring to their feet with frowns on their faces, and fright in their 
voices and say, "to that question we object." Oh, yes, when we sought to 
call out the words of that woman as she was passing to her grave, words 
which would have here the full force of prophesy, and all the God-like 
sanctity of truth; when we try to give that statement of hers, we are met 
by the strict rules of the law. Could we go to that grave and call her 
back to portray those scenes when she watched day by day, and saw her 
husband breaking away from all those holy ties which bound him to his 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 231 



home aud family; when she saw him sliding day by day down to ruin and 
death; could we call her back here, we should have this matter explained. 
She was a proud, as well as a loving woman, and as long as she had any 
hopes of his reclamation, would she go out on the housetops and proclaim 
his shame? No, no. 

They told us with a flourish of trumpets that they were going to 
prove that these two women stood on the stoop with locked arms and bade 
this husband farewell when he left for the Centennlial. Mr. Chnmplain got 
here and he dissipated that illusion. He didn't see any locking of arms^. 
They have called the prisoners relatives to prove that she lived on intimatw 
terms with this woman. She did not proclaim to his relatives what was 
going on in her heart. 

We will refer to another circumstance. That man says that there 
in the gloom when the wife was in the agony of death, in the darkness 
and terror of that terrible night, that she approached him and wanted him 
to "marry Molly." Whatever saint-like qualities you may beheve, gentle- 
men, that Mrs. Hendryx may have possessed, you know she never made 
any such request; and you know when this man tells it to us, that he tells 
a falsehood. And does an innocent man lie about a thing of that kind? 
No, gentlemen. That other woman had got possession of his soul; and 
when Mrs. John Grove said to him in so many words, "sir, you had better 
not come to my house with that woman;" when Mrs. Arvilla Grove spoke 
in all the disgust of her woman's nature, and said just what any other true 
woman would say under the circumstances, "there is no Mate Webber 
about me," they were the most natural remarks in the world, and it speaks 
volumes in this case. 

When they are suspected, Mrs. Webber is sent to Cazenovia, aud he 
sees Cook and has a talk with him about the matter; and he tells a man 
down to the village, "that whatever people may say, he shall obey his wife's 
last requests." There were three persons he wanted to conciliate; Cook. 
Rona Amsden, and Isaac Amsden. He wants to consummate this much for 
Mary Webber; and he wants their consent to his marriage with her. He 
goes to Mrs. Rena Amsden, the last day of his wife's life, when the last 
shadows of this world are flitting before her; 

"When she hears a voice they cannot hear. 

That bids her not to stay. 
And sees a hand they cannot see, 

That beckons her away," 

he is talkinc: with Rona Amsden about a ring he says his wife wanted her 
to have. He had not the courage to tell her then about the other requests 
that he tells Cook and Isaac Amsden about later, but he talks with her 



232 HAIVIILTON WARD. 

about a ring, and about taking Clatie. He says the wife requested that 
the morning she was shot. Do you see? He don't say anything to Rena 
about a gold headed cane. But Rena must be conciliated. You have seen 
that this bright, keen woman Rena, was looking Into this business, and she 
must be conciliated. And does counsel say now that any stain is to be 
thrown upom Rena Amsden? And does the younger counsel say, does he 
have the indecency to say that she was not just what she should be, when 
the prisoner himself says that Mrs. Hendryx laying upon her death bed, 
said that she wanted her little child given to the care of Rena Amsden? 
In September he again tells Rena about the wife's request and says that 
Cynthia the morning of the day she dlied, when he was alone with her, 
requested that Rena should have the ring that Cynthia wore, and the little 
boy. Rena at once says, "why, Henry, you told me this the day she died, 
and said she requested it of you the morning she was shot before anyone 
came." Rena re-membered this first conversation; it was burnt into her 
soul and Charles, her husband, remembered it also. 

Then he talks with Cook about going to Cazenovia; and he tells Cook 
there on that morning after she was shot, that she had requested him to 
marry — who? Mary Webber! To most of women in such circumstances it 
would be the last thought that would enter their mind, that their husband 
should marry anybody. Nine-tenths of them would shudder and shrink 
from the thought of any other womaa possessing their husband but them- 
selves although they were in their grave. That she should make such a 
request concerning a pure and true wo-man would be singular enough, but 
that she should request it with Mary Webber! Oh! Oh!! 

Cook advises him to tell Isaac Amsden, and he does; but what does 
he tell Mm. Nothing about Clatie, but that his wife had requested that be 
should give him a gold headed cane, and the prisoner should marry Molly. 
Nothing about a ring. A cane was to conciliate Isaac Amsden. And the 
old man says, "If that was her request I have nothing to say." And then 
Mrs. Webber takes the stand and lias the effrontery and impudence to say 
that he wrote to her in September. Just about the time he was fishing 
about Isaac Amsden and Rena. That he wrote to her in September telling 
her Cynthia's request. They had the letter. Why don't they produce it? 
They dare not, gentlemen of the jury. I speak of these things to show 
the overmastering power of this woman over the prSsoner, and this man 
of good character is telling great falsehoods. She took possession of him 
before the life insurance was procured. She hovered over him by the death 
bed of his wife, and she haunted him day and night. Whatever might have 
been his character before, he was now gone, and completely in the hands of 
this bad womam. 

So the breakfast scene occurred, and matters were precipitated. The 



HEXDRYX MUDRER TRIAL. 233 

pistol was tested and the cartridges were found to be good. The hired 
man went away, and Mary Webber went away, and in the darkness of 
night the deed was done. Why, gentlemen, was this same wandering Genii 
of the night? Was this some Ignis Fatuus of the moorV Was it some 
spirit of wickedness that burrowed in the earth, that murdered Cynthia 
Hendryx? No, no. 

It is found in the morning that there are no tracks. What is found 
in the bed of the woman; and what is found out on that stoop? A few 
drops of blood. 

[Counsel then illustrated from the map the place where the blood 
was found on the stoop.] 

If you believe the statement which he makes he never passed out 
that door until he did the shooting in the morning, to arouse the people. 
That blood did not come from Cynthia; it came from him. Then he was 
not wounded when he said he was, climbing over his wife? If he had been, 
the blood would have been here, gentlemen, by the door on the inside 
[illustrating]. These are little tell tale drops, but they tell terribly. From 
all his accounts he had nothing on but his shirt when this occurred; and it 
is proved by the lips of twenty witnesses that this is the garment. 

[Exhibits the shirt in question.] 

He was found with a wound on the outer side of the left leg about 
a foot above the knee, his left leg about here. [Illustrating.] The wound 
showed two round bullet holes an inch apart one-half inch deep. He had 
another wound, a bullet hole from inside out, coming out at root of left 
fore finger. [Illustrating.] He was found with a bruise on the outer end 
of this left thumb. All these wounds, gentlemen of the jury, were on his 
left side. He has been proved to be a right handed man. And now the 
learned counsel tells us that he has ransacked all the books, and he never 
heard of a case of self-inflicted wounds to hide a murder. Why did he not 
look into Taylor's Metlical Jurisprudence, and other works on medical juris- 
prudence? He would there have found many such cases. There is another 
thing about these self-inflicted wounds; they are never inflicted by a man 
of low character. They are done by persons who think they have enough 
character to carry them through. If a man has got a character, and stands 
well in a community, people will hesitate to believe that he would do such a 
thing. What further was there, gentlemen, about this self-inflicted wound? 
This wound on the leg. And I am talking about facts. That wound was 
oblique; the inner bullet hole was higher than the outer one, just one- 
quarter of an inch. This obliquity, gentlemen, of this wound, is one-quarter 
of an inch to an inch; three inches to a foot; six inches to two feet, of one 
foot to four. What is remarkable further about it is, that the obliquity of 
that shot is just in a line and at a place where tit would be if a man should 



234 HAMILTON WARD. 

pinch up the flesh with his left hand and shoot with a pistol held in his 
right, in this way. [Holding leg up between his thumb and finger, and 
holding the pistol muzzle against his leg.] These facts are undisputed. 
Now suppose a man was going to inflict a wound upon himself, where 
would he do it? He would do it upon his left side if he was right handed. 
He would do it where it would do the least harm, like the fleshy part of 
his thigh; where it would not strike an artery or vein of importance; where 
he could take hold of the flesh himself easily. And do you notice the singu- 
lar fact that this wound is just where a man naturally would put his left 
hand when he puts it down, and that it is just where a man would take 
hold if he wanted to pinch up his flesh; and that it is in just the direction 
that it would be if a man did it with a pistol in his right hand; these facts 
are all conceded. If a man wanted to inflict a wound he would not pinch 
up the flesh much. And if he wanted to get up just the least bit of flesh 
possible, and not injure himself much, he would grab up just about one 
inch. It might depend upon the position of the Hmb as to how easily he 
could get hold of his flesh, but he could easily put it in a position where it 
could be relaxed. 

Gentlemen, the next morning after the shooting the prisoner was 
found with a striped shirt on, the lower end of the flap of which would 
extend to his knees (exhibits the shirt again), this is it. There was a hole 
in it which looked like a bullet hole, blackened and burnt around the edges 
on the left side of the shirt; about three inches below where it would 
co'ver the prisoner's heart. He called attention of a number of persons 
to this hole that morning, saying the hole was got in the shirt that night; 
was not there the day before. The most careful inspection of this shirt 
could find no other hole in it except a small hole just the size of a bullet 
fitting the prisoner's pistol which was discovered a few days after about 
three inches below the burnt hole, the ball evidently passing from inside 
of the shirt out, showing clearly an exit hole for the ball that made the 
first hole, and that the garment had been folded at that point, and between 
the two holes. There were no powder stains about the exit hole. The 
outer end of the left thumb was powder stained or burned, so was the 
innner wound of the leg. If I am right in these powder stains, it decides 
this case of itself. Let me refer to some of the evidence on that subject. 

Edwin S. Bruce says: Saw his thumb next morning; black around 
the end. Saw hole in the shirt, it looked black around it and burnt. 

Henry A. Mead says: Prisoner showed next morning hole in the 
shirt, and said it was not there the night before; got it in the night some- 
how. 

Dr. Young testifies: Am the coroner who conducted inquest; prisoner 
handed me the shirt as the one he had on the night of the shooting; it was 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 235 

burnt around the edges of hole. Examined the hole with a microscope and 
saw particles of powder in the hole. Joseph Palmer shortly after inquest 
found the exit hole on a close examination of the shirt in my presence. 

The same science that detects the arsenic in the stomach, detected 
the powder in this hole. Only the modes are different. 

Conway Campbell says: I saw the thumb blackened with powder 
morning after shooting. I called George Amsden's attention to it. 

George Amsden says: Conway Campbell called my attention to pow- 
der on the thumb, and I saw it. He showed me hole in shirt and said that 
was calculated to fix him. It was burnt and powder stained around hole. 

Wm. Campbell says: Thumb was black on outside to thumb nail. 
He said it was blood; it looked like powder. 

Amasy Fuller says: The inside wound on the leg was black around 
it. Saw thumb; it was black around the flesh and at the end of thumb the 
thumb was bruised. 

Mrs. A. Fuller testifies: Saw thumb, it looked a dark brown at the 
outside and end. 

Ranso-m Rowley says: He showed end of thumb and said "there is 
where ball burnt his thumb." 

Charles Amsden says: Saw hole in shirt next morning; it was black- 
ened around it. 

Mrs. Rena Amsden says: He showed me hole in the shirt. It was 
burnt around. I thought a coal of fire had dropped on it. 

Harvey Graham says: Saw thumb. It looked powder burnt. I said 
the person must have been close to you. He said he guessed not, it was a 
bruise. 

Joseph Palmer says: Prisoner said he got hole in shirt that night and he 
thought it was made by a ball. I looked for exit hole and found it in pres- 
ence of Dr. Young. 

Joseph Palmer says: He showed me hole in the shirt and said he got 
it that morning getting out of bed. It was black around. 

John F. Renwick says: He pulled up his shirt and showed me hole 
in it. It was black around it. 

Dr. E. A. Willard testifies: The inner wound on leg had fine par- 
ticles in like powder. The inner wound showed signs of burning around 
it part way, on the upper part there were no signs of burning. 

Why was there no signs of burning on the upper part of the wound, 
gentlemen? Because the thumb protected it. And here is a most damning 
circumstance. Drs. Y'oung and Willard both testify that they found an 
irritated surface around the inner hole except at one point; and that was 
the place where the thumb would entirely protect the flesh on the leg and 
prevent irritation. Ah, how wonderfully circumstances point out this dark 



236 HAMILTON WARD. 

murder. And right here permit me to say, if there was powder in that 
inner wound, how did it get there? There is no pretense by them that 
it got there from that side. Can you tell me how a man cau reach around 
and shoot him in this way? From the outside. Or can you tell how a man 
could stand over this side of him and shoot through that shirt flap, and get 
powder into that wound, and no hole in the shirt. 

Dr. Reed says: Hole in shirt looks burut. The pistol must have been 
held within from 2 to 4 inches of it. 

Wm. E. Jackson says: He showed me hole in the shirt. It looked 
black around it. Said it was a close call- 
Mrs. Philbrick says: I did up the finger for him early next morning. 
It was black above the second joint. 

Curtis Smith says: He showed hole in shirt to Bruce and said it 
was a close call and that he got it the night of the shooting. 

Martin H. Grove says: I saw the thumb. It was black at end. The 
inside wound on leg looked dirty. Had a powdery appearance. 

He showed me hole in shirt. It was powdered around as though shot 
by a pistol close by. He said the shirt was new, put on the day befdre 
and the hole was not then in it. 

John A. Grove testifies: Saw the hole in the shirt next morning; 
said he thought he got that when his wife was shot. 

His thumb was stained black at the end and burnt. 

Now, gentlemen, is this evidence or is it not? Counsel talks about 
reasonable doubts, and every fifteen minutes he conjures you in the name 
of God, not to let your reason act here; because he don't want you terrified 
in your after lives with the thought that you have convicted anybody. 

There is evidence, the evidence of nineteen witnesses; demonstration, 
beyond any possible cavil, that there was powder stains upon the thumb, 
and there were powder stains on this hole in the shirt. Now, gentlemen, 
if it be true that this prisoner inflicted this wound, and made that hole in 
the shirt, he is guilty of murder. There is no escape from it. There is 
•no earthly reason why he should do it unless it was to make evidence in 
his favor and hide crime. There was no crime committed there that night 
except the murder of his wife. Then the crime that he was inflicting this 
wound upon his person, and putting this hole through his shirt to hide, 
was murder. If burglars had broken into that house and had shot his wife, 
would he have wounded himself and blackened his shirt? 

The learned counsel with all his ingenuity, and I must say with all 
his assurance, hadn't the audacity to claim that if he made this wound, 
and this aperture in his shirt, but what he did commit the crime. Now 
if you are convinced that there was powder stains upon the thumb, shirt 
or leg, either of these places, you are convinced that the pistol was held 
close to the place of shooting. They have produced some witnesses that 



HENDKYX MURDER TRIAL. 237 

say they did not notice the powder, did not see it. The fact that you gen- 
tlemen might examine a garment without the question of powder being 
raised, and one of you see specks of powder, and all the others do not, it 
docs not follow but what powder was there or that the person who said it 
was mistaken. 

They put Dr. Seneca Allen on the stand; and what does he tell us — 
a very fair man evidently. Why he investigated this shirt business with 
others the next morning, and the prisoner told him then that he had that 
shirt on that night and that that hole was not there the day before. And 
then the doctor asked him, "do you smoke?" "No." "Might you not have 
made it with a pipe or cigar?" "No." "Couldn't you have got it on the 
cars by a cinder?" "Oh, no; I haven't been on the cars." If anything was 
needed to show that this hole was made by powder, they have supplied 
the missing link by putting Dr. Allen on the stand. 

And then they put a lady on the stand; a cousin. And she tells you 
that all the other clothes were sent away to be washed. So that it seems 
in the mysterious movements in ferreting out this murder, that their wit- 
nesses supply the missing links, towards the establishment of the truth; 
showing, gentlemen, that murder will out. Proving absolutely that this 
terrible witness of that night's deed [showing the hole in the shirt] was 
•made with a pistol ball. Now, gentlemen, this hole in the shirt does not 
look exactly like a bullet hole now, they say. It never did; because when 
the fire communicated with it, it followed and burned the threads a little 
and left a square hole, as you will see by a close examination of it. 

Now, gentlemen, there is another feature connected with that shirt, 
and that is this, that the prisoner himself was the first one to call public 
attention to it. It was not noticed until he pulled it up and exhibited it. He 
knew it was there. He attached importance to that thing thus early. Why 
did he attach importance to it? Because it was one he had manufactured, 
as the marks of the burglary. One of the things he had put there to hide 
the murder. And so it is, that when a man departs from the path of 
safety and good morals and enters upon the devious track of sin and 
death, every step he takes, every time he moves, every word he utters 
turns against him, until the terrible aggregation of evidence is gathered in 
one overwhelming mass, and will crush and destroy him. It is proved from 
declaration of the prisoner, and from all these witnesses, that this hole 
was made that night. Here is that hole, [illustrating on his own person], 
it is right over a vital part. The pistol was fired at full maximum velocity. 
Where would the ball have gone if it had been fired by a burglar? Would 
it have struck the soft part of a man's body and deflected? Would it, for 
the special accommodation of the counsel, have slid down a man's leg and 
disappeared? I don't believe any of the doctors would have sworn that 
was possible. They might have sworn it was possible to turn the Mis- 



238 HAMILTON WARD. 

sissippi River so it would run to the north, but they could hardly swear that 
that ball could dance around a man's skin and not leave a scar. 

Gentlemen, do you know that room is only fifteen feet square, and 
that a ball fired from any part of that room would not be a spent ball, in 
any sense? Dr. Robinson tells you, and your own experience tells, that 
these balls do not begin to expend their force until they have traversed 
over two or three rods of space. So there was no spent ball there. No 
chance for deflection. Now, gentlemen, if that ball was fired at him by 
a burglar that night, it would have struck the prisoner; or if the shirt was 
one side far enough so the ball escaped his body it would have gone out 
through the backside. They have brought witnesses to swear, and this 
counsel says that if a ball was fired at its maximum velocity against a 
window pane it would cut a hole clean through it; without breaking the 
glass and make a clean cut. So you see that if the ball was fired from the 
outside by another person it was a physical impossibility for it to have 
disappeared without hitting him or cutting a hole in his shirt behind the 
hole of entrance. 

Now, gentlemen, counsel claims that some one else made the small 
hole just under the other which we say was the ball hole. Nobody but the 
prisoner ever made it, gentlemen. 

Now we come to the wound upon the leg. There are two theories in 
regard to that. Our theory is supported by all the other evidence in the 
case. Their theory is refuted by all the other evidence in the case. In the 
first place the jury are supposed to have some common sense, and that is 
the reason they are put into the jury box. And when doctors, professors, 
and other learned gentlemen come before you, their testimony is to be 
weig'hed by what you believe to be common sense, and what agrees with 
your understanding, like any other witness. Now, gentlemen, do you 
believe it is possible for a bullet to enter the limb here [illustrating] in 
the soft, fleshy part, and go down half an inch, and come up and out, 
within an inch of the point of entrance, without the flesh was pinched up? 
You do not believe it possible; nobody believes it possible although all the 
doctors may swear to it, that you can gather together between here and 
the Grecian Archipelago. Here is the shape of the prLsoner's thigh. 
[Showing diagram.] Dr. Young has been most outrageously abused be- 
cause he has made a cast of the prisoner's leg, and even when it is shown 
that his cast is more favorable to the prisoner's side of the case than to 
ours. But here is the correct shape of his thigh, (showing a pasteboard 
indicating the size of his thigh and place of hole). There are two marks, 
one inch apart, indicating the entrance and exit of the ball. Now, gentle- 
men, if their theory is correct and this flesh was not pinched up, you 
would find that the ball came down here to this point and went out, show- 
ing that the shirt was below the wound and the ball could not have passed 



HENDKYX MURDER TRIAL. 239 

from the outside unless through the flap. Good Heavens, they talk about 
deep facia down there deflecting a ball! If you believe the prisoner's 
theory, you have got to discard your own senses, and believe that the ball 
instead of going on a straight line, deflected without anything to deflect 
it and the ball at full force. 

Gentlemen, in a case of this importance, where a human life hangs 
upon the result, it seems like an insult to a jury to talk such things to 
them. Dr. Smith tells you it is an impossibility. I don't know what 
counsel thinks of Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith and I have had differences; and I 
don't know that we are particularly cordial now; but I respect him, and 
I do not believe him to be a man that would hound a prisoner on to his 
grave by false evidence. And if counsel means to convey any impression 
of that kind, or that he was capable of being influenced because his bril- 
liant and talented sou has been an assistant in this prosecution, he has 
committed an unpai'donable insult to Dr. Smith; and I think my learned 
friend will regret it, when he looks the matter carefully over. It was with 
great reluctance that Dr. Smith testified; and I alone am responsible for 
his coming here. I knew he had been a man that had had great experi- 
ence in the army, and in his profession, and I believed it to be the duty of 
the people to have him come here and give us the benefit of his opinion. 
And, gentlemen, he has come upon the stand and simply told what he 
believed; and what was true and what was his duty to say, and he says 
it is an impossibility for this man to have been wounded as they claim he 
was. 

In reference to the testimony of Dr. Minor, I do not understand him 
to say that such a thing is possible; he says, it might be possible with a 
spent ball. Counsel has read from his testimony, and he says it might be. 
Gentlemen, does this case hang upon bare might, sweetly under the tongue, 
as evidence, then we might as well abandon any prosecution of criminals. 
Drs. Reed, Robinson, Stacy and other physicians agree with our position; 
and I say it in the name of common sense, do you believe that this pistol 
ball was fired within fifteen feet of (his leg, and that it dippetl down and 
went in half an inch, and came out within one inch of the place of its 
entrance? 

But we have the elder Dr. Willard, who swears to inversion and 
eversion. We do not want to get confused. If we can see anything in his 
evidence or in any other witnesses evidence, that will show that burglars 
committed that deed, or probably committed it, no man would be more 
glad than I to send this prisoner out into the world with God speed; no 
man more glad to do it than this grey haired man, the father of his mur- 
dered wife. Dr. Willard says that when a ball goes in, it presses in the 
edges of the flesh, making what they call inversion; that when it comes out 
it makes what is called eversion. That is true as a general proposition. It 



240 HAMILTON WARD. 

is true with old-fashioned round ball; it is true with large balls. It is true, 
because when the round ball strikes the flesh, it strikes a considerable sur- 
face and presses it in; and presses out a considerable surface when it 
comes out. But balls which are small as this pistol ball is, with a little 
point almost like a needle, striking the flesh at full velocity, that it would 
cut a hole clean through a pane of glass; why, gentlemen, it is like stick- 
ling a pen-knife through your flesh. There can be no evidence of inversion 
or aversion, from such a bullet. Dr. Willard thought he saw it, but it is 
not the first time he has been mistaken in this case. He thought the holes 
two inches apart; and we have measured them, and they are only one inch 
apart. He says that his first impression was that Mrs. Hendryx was lay- 
ing upon her back when she was shot; then he changes his opinion and 
thinks she was laying upon her side. There was one thing that he said 
there that shows there was no eversion, and that was his remark in the 
presence of Amasa Fuller; and what was that? "Here are two .shots." 
And why? Because there are two perfectly round holes. If he had seen 
there eversion or pouting out, he would not have said that. Now, gentle- 
men, he looked upon it with the suspicion in his mind that it was com- 
mitted by burglars. Every one at first looked upon it so, and the evidence 
has shown how they kept talking about burglars; and I don't know but 
Dr. Willard thought he saw the eversion; but he was confused about it. 
Why did he tell Mr. and Mrs. Moses that the shot came from the inside? 
Did that old lady come upon the stand and perjure herself? Did Samuel 
Moses do it? He has resided at Cuba for years, and is a respectable and 
substantial citizen of that community. 

But Dr. Willard's opinion in the matter amounted to no evidence. 
It is unsupported, and contradicted by all other evidence in the case. You 
cannot put your hands upon your hearts and say you believe it is true. 
Take the evidence of Dr. Otis Allen; he is of the same opinion that Dr. 
Willard was, but he has the same difficulty to encounter that Dr. Willard 
had; and he had but little experience in such matters. If it was sup- 
ported by other evidence in this case we might attach some importance 
to it, but it is not. If that ball had come from the outside, where would 
it have gone out? And how in God's name would it have got in? You may 
talk about that inversion and eversio>n, but here is something practical. 
Tell me how a man running around in that room in the night, with his 
shirt down in the usual way;— for there was no one holding it up, I pre- 
sume, although counsel has imagined wonderful things about running 
around in the night time in his shirt only, but I never knew a shirt to raise 
itself up, did you?— then tell me, gentlemen of the jury, as men of sense, 
could that shot have come from the outside, and not come through that 
shirt there? [exhibiting shirt and illustrating]. They have brought men 
here from the coroner's jury to tell us that this shirt was examined before 



HEXDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 241 

there, and thoy all toll us that there were no bnllet holes in it except this 
one on the left breast. Why, gentlemen, taking the obliquity of this shot 
from the floor up as they must claim it was, what do we have? The 
obliquity you remember is one inch in four. If you will allow me to illus- 
trate. [Counsel illustrates on the floor.] You remember they claim the 
shot was fired from the outside. The wound on the thigh is two feet eight 
inches up from the floor. On that same rtiuge, if the pistol was nine feet 
off, it must have rested on the floor. If it had been farther off the wound 
would be higher. It would have been impossible by the rainge of the shot 
on the thigh, precisely as they locate it, for that pistol to have been farther 
off than nine feet, and it must have rested right on the floor at that dis- 
tance. It was thirty-two inches at the leg, to the floor; and at one foot 
from the leg it would be about two feet four inches, I leave off the frac- 
tions: at two feet from the leg the pistol would be about two feet one inch 
high; at three feet from the leg it must be about one foot nine inches; at 
four feet it would be about a foot and a half; at five feet from the leg it 
would be about a foot and two or three inches; at seven feet from the leg, 
it would be less tha.n eight inches; and at nine feet from the leg the pistol 
must rest upon the floor. So you see that this burglar, from the outside 
that fired the bullet into his leg, could not have been over nine feet from 
him. If he had stood right by his side he would have had to hold his pistol 
down to a point below the height of the wound. Do you believe he took ail 
that pains? If he was under the table, as some of the witnesses say the 
prisoner says he was, then there was a distjijnce of eight feet, and he 
would have got on his knees to shoot hi-m and held his pistol to the floor. 
What nonsense! What trifling to talk such stuff! What a wonderful ball 
that must have been. It skipped around and performed all the antics of a 
harlequin. It got down on the floor, and got up under his shirt without 
even touching him; it went in his leg, and came out again within an inch; 
it got out from under his shirt, and conveniently went away; and after it 
got from under his shirt, it went up and struck the window casing. It 
beats all the bullets I ever heard of, and I believe if I had asked some of 
the defendant's doctors if it was possible for a bullet to do all this, they 
would have said it was possible. And yet, gentlemen of the jury, you have 
got to believe a burglar made that shot. 1 waited for my learned friend to 
explain this; I waited in suspense, but he did not do it, because with all his 
ingenuity, and he has got a large share of it, he could not do it. And I 
venture to say that there is no power on the earth or under the earth that 
could do it. Have you any doubt that this flesh was pinched up? Then the 
ball came from the inside, gentlemen; then it was inflicted that night. It 
could not have been inflicted by a outside party, unless he had an accom- 
plice, unless in the darkenss of night that bad woman came and helped him. 
We have not proved she was there, we will not surmise it. Then he did 



242 HAMILTON WARD. 

it. There is no escape from that proposition, a/nd if he did, then he com- 
mitted this murder. And so it is that the means devised by man, by which 
to escape from the consequence, and puDishment of sin, and folly, often 
return upon them, and are the very instruments which lead to their con- 
viction. 

Before I close I want to speak again about another piece of evidence 
in this case over which there is some contest. The prisoner claims that 
this little hole down here, on the left side of the shirt, the exact hole which 
you see there indicated by that little appearance, was made after this shoot- 
ing; a/nd they pretend to say that that ball did not make it because it was 
not found until Mr. Joseph Palmer found it. That is true, it was not; but 
was it not there, gentlemen? If not, who put it there? Did one of the 
Coroners Jury put it there? Did Dr. Young put it there? What nonsense. 

Dr. Young has shown some zeal in this matter. He was one of the 
oflBcers elected by the people to do just this kind of business. It was his 
duty to examine and enquire. They examined for holes and did not find 
this at first. Why? Because that large one was the overshadowing hole. 
They did not find any stain around the hole because it was folded under. 
Why are there not stains on the inside of the shirt? Because the ball came 
through another part of the shirt first. Why did they not find it when it 
was in the possession of Mr. Palmer, or before that? Because they did 
not turn the shirt inside out as Mr. Palmer did when he discovered the hole. 

Did Dr. Young testify falsely for the purpose of hancring this man? 
I tell you, gentlemen of the jui-y, if a man should say that outside of the 
Court room where the counsel is protected by the false legal notion that 
he can say anything in the Court room and not be accountable for it, — it 
would be dangerous for him. Did Dr. Y'oung punch the hole in that shirt 
for the purpose of manufacturing evidence? Oh, no, gentlemen, it is another 
piece of impudence that has characterized this whole defense. 

Let me again refer to the hole. We go back to the examination of the 
shirt before the Coronei-s Jury. They do not find it. The search for 
crime is often long and devious. Now they say Joseph Palmer is eighty 
years of age, and he is. He turned the shirt inside out, and put it upon 
the table and searched for the hole. Why did he find it? It was before 
the hole was made from the inside out, and hence could not well be found 
from the other side. He had a magnifying glass at the time, but he says 
he did not discover it with the glass; but he had the glass in his hand and 
was examining the shirt thoroughly. He knew, as you and I and everybody 
else knows, that it was impossible for a man to have made that while the 
shirt was on the prisoner, unless there was an escape hole or it went in his 
body. They found the hole, and what does that prove? It proves that 
the shirt was pinched up. It is on the left side, the same side as the 
wounded leg, so you see what was running in this man's mind. The fact 



IIENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 243 

of this shot through the shirt and the fact that the exit hole was just about 
where it would be folded up, if a person was going to piuch it up and shoot 
through it, shows that our theory is true not only as to this, but as to 
the leg. 

Gentlemen, is there anything more to be said upon this subject of the 
shooting? Why upon the subject of this eversion and inversions the doctors 
all agree that if the flesh was pressed up in this way as we claim, the iu- 
Tersion, if any, would be on the inside of the leg and the eversion would 
be on the outside of the finger. Dr. Willard says he found eversion on 
the back or outside of the finger. 

This garment you see here now bears the traces of powder stain and 
the self-inflicted shooting by the prisoner. It is conceded that it was on the 
prisoner that night; it is conceded that it was made that night; it -must be 
conceded that this hole could not have been made by anybody else, and 
therefore he has manufactured false evidence to conceal his crime. 

What further does he do? John Grove, Isaac Amsden, Bruce and a 
number of others, when they see this wound, in the thigh, and hear his 
story, make an examination around the outside door and window casings 
for the bullet. They take this piece of casing, [exhibiting it] and run 
their fingers along the edge of it. You can see here where the paper 
comes; it does not come out to the hole. You see here now where the 
paint is; it does not come out. They find no bullet, no bullet holes. It 
does not follow absolutely that they would find it, if it was there; but I 
do say, that taken in connection with the other facts, it shows it was not 
there the morning of the shooting. 

You remember Dr. AshJey tried to get this shirt in the same shape 
that it must have been in when the shot was fired, to account for the holes, 
and he could not do it. It is made a subject of inquiry, and he wants to 
know where that bullet went to, after it went through his leg. If it was 
shot from the door; if it went in from the outside where did it go to? They 
look all over the casing and do not find it. Time passes on, gentlemen, 
and this man discovers that it is important to find a bullet or bullet hole 
in this particular place. He goes and makes a statement to Mr. Swift, a 
brother to one of the counsel for defense, and a man whose statement 
yon will not question in connection with this case. He tells him he '"has 
found a ball;" that there were people there, but he did not let them see 
it. That he "dug it out with a butcher-knife;" "and there is the ball," 
showing Swift a 22 ball. So you see that same plotting man that got 
the insurance; that got over to the back side of the bed; that did all these 
things; was now manufacturing evidence to show where the bullet went 
to, after it went from his thigh. Is there any thing else to this, gentle- 
men? Manufacturing false evidence! Would an innocent man do that? 



214 HAMILTON WARD. 

An innocent man making an indentation in this casing, and saying he had 
got a bullet out of there, and saying it was just the height of his leg. 
Why, we had the lady on the stand here, and why was she not examined 
about that? Why did they not show by her that the paper covered over 
this hole if so? Why is all the evidence on this subject kept back? It is 
proof that this man was there in September manufacturing false evidence 
in this case. 

He put this hole through the shirt; he tells this extraordinary story 
about his wife wanting him to marry this woman; and when confronted 
by his inconsistency, he denies that he has told the first story. This same 
man is manufacturing false evidence again to cover his tracks. Gentle- 
men, if you can pile up circumstances mountain high; if there is any such 
thing as proving a fact by circumstantial evidence, does not this prove it? 
Why don't they bring witnesses to prove so^mething about this ball in 
the casing? His own relatives kept the house. If the ball was there 
they could have shown it; they would have seen it. No, the 
ball was not in the casing, he dug the hole we find here him- 
self. If I put the identical ball in this hole in the casing that 
was found in the kidney of Cynthia Hendryx, you will see that 
it cannot go in there and a man's fingers go over it without finding 
it. It was a 22-lOOth ball that was found in Mrs. Hendi-yx; and that is 
the kind of a ball, if a burglar shot her, that would have been in the 
burglar's pistol; and that is the kind of a ball that would have been found 
in the casing. So you see that in any aspect of the case the claim of the 
prisoner in regard to the ball in the casing is false. 

It would seem to me, gentlemen, that I have wearied your patience 
long enough, in presenting to you the views of the people; and that it was 
unnecessary in view of the overwhelming evidence already referred to, to 
address any further remarks to this jury. But I am admonished by the 
fact that this case is one of great importance, and a case that has once 
been tried, that it is my duty,— however wearisome it may be to you, and 
however exhausting to myself, — in justice to the people which I represent, 
that I should go over this case somewhat fully. I pledge you, however, 
to be as brief as I can be, in discussing some of the features of this case 
which I have not, as yet, presented to you; and it will be necessary to re- 
turn somewhat to the evidence that I have gone over on several subjects. 
Now the counsel that last addressed you, after various manipulations of 
his hand upon the limb, remarked that there ought to have been a stain 
left around the limb, that was not found. If I caught the point of his 
argument, it was, that the stain had ought to have been above, aud not 
below the wound. Perhaps upon his theory that might be, because he 
placed his hand in an unnatural position, in one that no person would take, 



HENDRYX MURDEK TRIAL. 245 

if be intended to inflict the wound upon himself. Now we are not to sup- 
pose that this man intended to wound his hand. That was an accident. 
He inflicted this wound in the hurry, and under great excitement; in the 
dead of night, with the shrieks of his wife in his ear, with the little boy 
Claytie in the bedroom, he inflicted this wound; and it is not to be sup- 
posed that he did it with the utmost deliberation. His object was to take 
up as little of the flesh as possible, as I have before stated, to fire below 
his finger probably, but he got it a little too high. It did not occur to him 
that if he shot tlirough, it would wound his finger. He intended to get his 
pistol below the point of his thumb and he only struck the point of his 
thumb, when it was in that position. 

Now a portion of that thumb would cover a portion of that wound 
on the leg. It would cover that portion where the doctors say there was 
no inflammation. It would cover the place where there was no redness. 
How wonderfuly are we thus able to trace the hand that did the deed. 

Now I want to advert again to the evidence of the elder Dr. Willard; 
he says that he thinks the ball went from the outside in. There was on« 
thing that came out from the testimony of Amasa Fuller and Mr. Wilson. 
They did what Dr. Willard was not able to, they described the precise 
position that Dr. Willard and the prisoner occupied on the bed at the time 
of the probing, and they say the doctor probed from the inside, out. They 
are clear about it. The Doctor says he should expect in using a probe to 
get it through the track of the ball; to finally force it through the samo 
way the ball went. And the evidence of these gentlemen is that the probe 
was put through from the inside, out. 

Now, gentlemen, there is another piece of evidence that my learned 
friend says he does not know the meaning of, that he does not know what 
importance it has in this case. And that is, the stain upon Cynthia Hen- 
dryx's window. It was the mark of a man's hand. It stood there like 
the characters upon the wall of Belshazzar's palace. 

Now I will call your attention to Charles Amsden's testimony on 
that subject: 'Hendrjx showed me the stain on the sill. He had found it. 
It was a stain like cow manure of the shape of a hand. Now the question 
arises, what importance had that evidence in the case? I will tell you. 
There had been a search for burglars about these premises, and it was 
discussed whether or not they had entered the house. It occurred to this 
man's mind that he could manufacture evidence that burglars had been iu 
his wife's bedroom, by putting the stain of a man's hand on the sill. It 
would go to show that some one had grasped the sill in attempting to 
effect an entrance into this bedroom. Isaac Amsden did not put it there; 
none of the physicians put it there; none of the persons swarming around 
the house put it there. It was not there the morning after she was shot. 



246 HAMILTON WARD. 

The women had their wet cloths and put them over the window sill. They 
would have detected a manure stain, they would have seen it on their 
cloths. Two or three witnesses examined that sill the morning after the 
shooting especially and did not find it. I submit the fair inference is, they 
did not find it until it was pointed out by Henry Hendryx. Did burglars 
put it there? Did you ever hear that burglars, in making an entrance into 
a house, go and fill their hands with cow manure and then grasp the win- 
dow sill? 

Now, gentlemen, there is another branch of this case that I desire 
to call your attention to, and that is the inconsistent and absurd accounts 
which this man gave of the shooting. I agree with you that a man 
awakened in the night by burglars in his house, might be so much excited 
that he would give confused statements regarding it. He might be so ex- 
cited that his statements would not be exact. But, gentlemen, all the 
time he would be telling the truth. Every time the truth would come to his 
aid; he might not tell all the story at once, hut every time the truth would 
come out when the full statement was made, and in the right direction. 
You put a witness upon the stand, and if he is telling a true story, however 
humble and inferior he may be, he will tell it every time alike, nor will 
all the ingenuity of learned counsel make Ms statements vary on material 
points. But if he is telling a false story it does not require the most 
skillful and practical lawyer to detect it. If Hendryx had made different 
statements on immaterial points only, we could have overlooked it, but he 
varies on the material points as well. He tells that he had his pistol out 
shooting one or two days before that, and they proved by McCarty that 
Buch was the fact; and then he tells others that he hadn't had his pistol 
out in three months. Now the utmost confusion cannot account for that. 
I will trace along some of the inconsistencies in his statements. We will 
commence with Mrs. Graham. He tells her that he "followed out to the 
door; the burglar was ahead and shut thij door; then he opened it and was 
ehot from the outside." This was his story to Mrs. Graham, and the first 
time he told it; the story he told before Mr. Mead and Dr. Ashley got 
there; but they told him he could not have been shot from the outside, that 
the ball must have come from the inside. 

He tells Harvey Graham that "he was shot from the outside of the 
dining room, and that the wound in the thigh and finger were made at the 
same time." 

He tells Mr. Mead "he thought he was shot from the outside." 
Mead tells him that "he was shot by a man under the table." That was 
before Bruce came. When Bruce came, he tells him "that he thought he 
•was shot by a man under the table," using the same language that Mead 
had used. He tells him that his money was gone. 



HENDRYX MURDER TRIAL. 247 

He tells Adam Lester that '"he did not have but fifty or seventy-five 
cents in his pocket-book, and tells two or three other witnesses that he 
had from eight to ten dollars." Now if he had ten dollars in his pocket- 
book, he would have told that alike every time. No confusion would ac- 
count for such a viirianeo in his recollection as that. 

He tells C. M. Rude in his first conversation "that he thought it 
was some one under the table; and he grasped for some one as they were 
passing by." In another conversation ten days after the shooting he tells 
him "that it came from the outside of the door, but the doctor said it came 
from the inside." 

He tells Wm. Campbell that, "he went up in the woods with the 
girls to shoot chipmucks, two or three days before the shooting, and that 
there were two or three charges left in his pistol when he got back." 
Why should he insist in accounting for the number of charges in this 
pistol? 

He tells Amasa Fuller that, "he thought the shot came from the 
pantry door." 

He tells John S. Renwick that, "he heard a shot; that he went to the 
door and opened it. and was shot from under the table, in the hand and 
leg at the same time." 

He tells Dr. Young that, "he was positive that he was shot in the 
thigh at that time, as he felt it. That he was positive he did not shoot his 
thumb and finger when he went out to give the alarm, as he felt it before." 

He tells two or three witnesses that "the night was dark and foggy, 
no he could not see any one," yet he tells John Grove and Mr. Haines that 
"ninety rods away he saw the little boy, at four o'clock in the morning, 
wave his hand to him that all was right." 

Now I say, gentlemen, that some of these discrepancies might be 
accounted for by the condition of a person in great trouble; but that will 
not account for such great contradictions as these. 

Two witnesses swear that Mrs. Hendryx thought it queer, and won- 
dered why the dog did not bark, "because he generaly made a fuss at such 
times." Are they going to dispute her? Dare they question the accuracy 
of her statement? We cannot bring her here to testify to it, but here are 
her words. The dog was shut up in the shed. And the circumstance 
attracted the attention of Mrs. Hendryx at the time so much that she 
spoke about it. Gentlemen, do you believe a man ever had a watch-dog 
about his premises, but what would give the alarm in such an emergency; 
and does not the fact that he did not bark give a terrible significance to the 
matter? 

But counsel says with great assurance, that it is proved in this case, 
that the statement made by Henry as to the manner in which he was shot. 



248 HAMILTON WARD. 

was endorsed by his wife, or that she listened to it and made no dissent. 
It does not appear that she heard any of the conversation in the dining 
room when he was giving an account of the shooting; nor does it appear 
that he gave any account of the shooting in her room. Gentlemen, she 
says, and it is in proof in this case, "that she saw no burglars." Her 
words come to us from the grave, and she says, "I saw no burglars." And 
when he was giving an account of the transaction in the other room to 
Dr. Ashley and Mrs. Hendryx disputed him when Mrs. Graham was pres- 
ent, she was asked to state what Mrs. H. said, when counsel rushes to 
his feet to exclude her declarations. No, gentlemen, they want no words 
from this dying woman. They desire no declaration from her lips. They 
want her to sleep quietly in her last resting place, in her bloody shroud; 
but they do not want the last sentences her lips ever uttered, because they 
weigh against this prisoner. Perhaps she never suspected that he killed 
her. Perhaps she carried to her grave the harrowing thought, that the 
hand that had clasped hei-s before that holy altar, as they started together 
in their journey through life, when he solemnly promised to love, cherish 
and protect her; the hand in whose embrace she gave her love, her life, 
her all; the hand whose duty it was to shield and protect her from the 
Btoi-'ms and tempests of life; that this hand had done the foul and inhuman 
deed, at least there were some things that this dying wife suspected. She 
has given us some glimpses of her thoughts, and they are in censure of this 
man. I have grouped them together in order that you may refresh your 
memory in regard to them. They are only a few simple sentences, and 
what are they? 

She tells Rena Amsden, "it would look better for Henry to be lifting 
me, rather than to be calling upon others all the time." These are the 
utterances of tliat dying woman, and her words are words of gold. They 
dare not dispute them. 

On Sunday evening when they were in Claytie' be(3room — he and 
Mrs. Webber — Mrs. Grove went to him and said, "Henry, Cynthia thinks 
you ought to stay with her some." This is sworn to by Mrs. Graham, 
and they say that she has no pi-ejudice. She says, "he was not as attentive 
to her as he ought to be; he only lifted her once, and that was when she 
asked him; and she said she should think he might lift her some of the 
time." And then she said, as the light of life was going out, "Oh, Henry, 
they are blaming you for all this." 

Mrs. Olinda Anisden says, "he asked her to kiss him, and she shook 
her head; he asked if he could kiss her, and she assented." Mrs. Phi!brick 
and Martin H. Grove testify to the same thing. 

Mrs. Grove says, "Cynthia says sh^i would like to have you stay with 



HKXDUYX ML'KDER TRIAL. 240 

her part of the time." This was the first week, and she adds, "they wero 
in Claytie's bedroom sitting on the bed, and hei- arm was upon his 
shoulder." A beautiful place for him, when his dyin^ wife was calling for 
him. "When he came into his wife's room, she pointed her finger at him." 
What did that mean? There were no words of complaint. There was the 
husband of her youth and the father of her child, against whom she spake 
no words of accusation, but there was that silent finger pointing out to 
him what was passing in her soul. Ah, gentlemen, that finger will point 
at him forever. He may go free, if you please, and walk once more upon 
the green earth, while she is slumbering beneath it; he may take this Mrs. 
Webber and go with her to the uttermost parts of th^e earth; he may fly 
to the darke.st recesses of the caves, or seek the top of the highest moun- 
tain, or the farthest island of the sea; but the finger of that dying wife 
will point at him still. While human tribunals may refuse to do their 
duty, or may shrink from the responsibility of meeting out justice to him, 
thank God, there is, in the gr^at range of His providence, retribution, swift 
and sure. 

Mrs. Stebbins swore on the other trial, that she "did not think he 
was in her room as much as he ought to be." And they prove that Rena 
came in and Mrs. Heudryx enquired of her where Henry was. She still 
wanted him with her; she was still yearning for that husband to pay her 
a little attention; praying for a little consolation, as she lay there upon her 
bed of suffering, with his pistol ball in her body. 

Gentlemen, does the learned counsel say, in the face of all this evi- 
dence, that he would have shunned his victim if he had murdered her; 
and from the fact that he did not shun her, he did not murder her? Why, 
does he not shun her? Was it not marked? Was not that wife complain- 
ing day by day of his negligence? Suffering as she was; requiring three 
or four persons to be constantly with her. She was continually haunted 
with the thought of the negligence of her husband, when he should have 
been the chief one by her side. Yet counsel says he did not shun her, and 
in the next breath he says, "suppose we concede that he was not with her 
as much as he ought to be; we will concede it;" as I understood him. "If 
it wiil be any gratification to their side, we will." He says, "if he had been 
guilty of this murder, he would have been with his wife, to have averted 
suspicion," and the very fact that he was not with her, he argues, was 
proof of his innocence. You see to what inconsistencies and dire straits 
even my learned friend is driven, to sustain the sinking case of his guilty 
client. 

But there is another thing about this that I want to call your atten- 
tion to. I told you this pistol had seven barrels. You have seen it here. 



250 HAMILTON WARD. 

Gentlemen, have yon noticed the singular fact that the discharge of every 
one of these barrels is accounted for in this evidence? McCarty says, as 
we claim, that there was not but one shot in the woods. Mr. Swift has 
eeen him since the other trial, and now he thinks there might have been 
two; but I take it you will construe his testimony as being, that there was 
but one shot in the woods. When Hendry x came down to the house then 
there were six loaded chambers, and one discharged. Where are the rest 
of them? One is in his wife; that is two. One is through his leg and 
finger; that is three. One is through his shirt; that is four. Where are 
the other three? The watchman Malouey, who staid up that night at 
Cuba village, says be heard three shots successively about four in the 
morning. Another witness says she heard three shots. There, have you 
got the seven? Do you see how terribly this evidence chimes in, and 
proves the number of shots, and proves this man guilty? 

But we are told there were burglars there. And I suppose I must 
talk about that a little. I have hardly the patience to do it. If there is 
a human being within the sound of my voice that believes there were bur- 
glars there, I am mistaken. Why, there were some burglars over at Olean 
and Jamestown. They might have been in Hendryx's house, it is said. 
Have you any idea that burglars would come into a house and go right 
up to the bed and sh<iot a woman, when there was no danger? And do you 
think that burglars would rush out of the house, take a man's pocket-book, 
rifle it, examine his papers and carry off the money, leave the papers, and 
then come back and shoot his wife for it? Why, gentlemen of the jury, 
Cynthia Hendryx again tells us that the house was fastened the night 
before. And when this man is questioned on that subject, what does he 
say? He does not say some worm of the earth has crawled through the 
cellar, or that some one had found the trap door and got through, or that 
some fell creature of the air had found the chamber window and got in 
that way. That sort of nonsense was reserved for the counsel to tell us 
about. That was the result of his imagination, after he says he went 
and looked over the premises the last time. No, no, this man does not pre- 
tend that there were burglars in there unless they got in the back dining 
room window. There was a table under that window, and other things 
which made it improbable that a burglar could have got in there without 
disturbing them. Major Eldridge testifies that the prisoner said he 
did not see how anybody could have got in without disturbing these 
things. And that morning it occurs to these people who were 
investigating that a burglar might have got into the bedroom window. 
They go under the window and there is soft earth, but no tracks under 
the window. Ah, but there were some burglars by Van Ness' house in 
Cuba village, and when Van Ness went out in his night dress, he could 
see them. But they were burglars that ran away on being seen. They 



IIEXDRYX -MURDER TRIAL. 251 

were not shooting burglars. And the counsel would have you believe that 
these men in the bright moonlight, when Robert Adams was taking his 
saleratus water in his house without a light; when another man was count- 
ing his cattle on the hill by moonlight; when another man was looking 
at the time of night on his clock by moonlight, that these persons at Van 
Ness' not knowing where Heudryx lived; not knowing anything about the 
cellar door Bruce sat on, and did not see; that these burglars had gone 
past banks and stores, aud people who had money, and through a whole 
village, and had gone up to this humble dwelling, where they had no reason 
to suppose that they could get a single dollar; they had gone there, and the 
very first thing they did was to shoot Mrs. Hendryx; and the next thing 
they did was to shoot the husband. Now, gentlemen, you have a right to 
take into consideration the habits of burglars. They never fire unless they 
are attacked. Unless it is necessary. It is the professional burglar that 
fires when discovered, and it is tramps who run. According to his own 
atory, he went out upon the trap door, and nobody was to be seen. Search 
is instituted, and all kinds of attempts made to find these burglars. The 
whole community is aroused to the importance of the fact, but no trace is 
found. It seems to me, gentlemen of the jury, nonsense to talk about it. 
Where is the proof of burglars? Where is the circumstance to show it? 
Every fact excludes it. The character of the wound, the hole in the shirt, 
the circumstances attending the examination of the premises the next day, 
the improbability of burglars getting in there in that manner, all go to show 
its absurdity. The probability is that if there bad been burglars there that 
night, that in a few hours they would have been caught. No, no, gentle- 
men, this was but a pretext. It was one of the contrivances of this man 
to evade ssupicion. Here were three persons in that house. Here was 
Claytie; and where is he? If there were burglars in that house why is he 
not produced to prove it? 

Now, gentlemen, there is another circumstance I want to call your 
attention to. The Coroner had made up his mind to have a post-mortem. 
Hendryx ascertained that it was to be done, and he goes to two of his 
wife's brothers aud tries to persuade them not to have it, and to go to the 
Coroner aud prevent it. He tells the remarkable story, as a reason, that 
his wife objected to being cut up; he had heard her talk about these things 
before. Do you think Cynthia Hendryx and her husband had ever dis- 
cussed the question of her being cut up, if she was killed? No, gentle- 
men, it was one of the further contrivances to cover up this crime, and it is 
one of the evidences by which we are able to point out this man as the 
guilty party. 

And now, gentlemen of the jury, what is your duty? Has there been 



252 HAMILTON WARD. 

a murder committed? Are you satisfied that the prisoner is guilty? If you 
are, what is your duty? You know, gentlemen, that the safety of com- 
munity, the safety of the life of every married woman as she lies down at 
night, depends upon the protection of her husband; and the safety of your 
own daughters as you give them out into the world under the protection 
of some man, the peace and welfare of society, all demand that when this 
crime is established, it should meet with speedy and proper retribution. 
Some of you may have a lurking dislike to capital punishment; but j^jpu 
should remember that after the flood had abated from the face of the 
earth, and God flung His bow into the heavens, among the first command- 
ments which God gave Noah for his guidance was, "Whoso sheddeth man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed." And eight hundred years later, 
amid the thunders of Sinai the commandment was given by Jehovah him- 
self, "Thou shalt not kill," and He supplemented this by another decree 
that, "he that smiteth a man, so that he shall die, shall be surely put to 
death." These commands are above our law, above our consciences, above 
everything. They come from the Almighty, as a guide for the security of 
all human beings. 

Gentlemen, you are the conservators of the public peace. If the jury 
will not do their duty, society will tremble, and the foundations of liberty 
and peace and good order will perish away. Judges can do nothing; Dis- 
trict Attorneys can do nothing; witnesses can do nothing; public sentiment 
can do nothing, unless the jury discharge their duty. 

It comes to us from the prisoner s own mouth that he knew how the 
other jury stood. It is a delicate subject to talk upon, but I feel bound in 
the discharge of my duty to allude to it. This is the second trial. We 
believe this man guilty. We believe the law should be vindicated. We 
came into the case without malice, and notwithstanding the insinuations 
of counsel, we believe that we have conducted it fairly. We say that it is 
plain that this man knew before the jury came in on the other trial that 
th«y would disagree. A witness is put upon the stand and he says that 
the prisoner told him after his return from the other trial, that they knew 
all the time how the jury stood, and they would try hard to have the next 
jury stand in the same way. All this only goes to show that the man that 
put the bullet in the casing: the man that put the stain on the window; 
the man that put the bullet in his leg; the man that put the 
hole in his shirt; the niau that murdered his wife; the man that 
went to Cook and tried to get him to use money to debauch and 
corrupt the grand jury, and to prevent his indictment for murder; that 
this man was in some way informed how the other jury stood, and wanted 
to pack this. I say this because duty requires me to. We must do that 
and not shrink from it. It may be painful to us; it may be painful to 



HENDKYX MURDER TRIAL. 253 

the prisoner; it •may be painful to the District Attorney, and to all con- 
cerned in this case. But Cynthia Hendiyx was murdered, and in the name 
of God is there no retribution. We see her there at her home that night, 
a well woman; we find her the next morning by his side, in the agonies of 
death. And now, 

"Her part of all the pomp that fills 
The circuit of the Summer hills. 
Is that her grave is green." 

Gentlemen, there is no satisfaction in life, like the consciousness of 
duty well done. When you retiect upon this trial in your after lives, there 
will be no satisfaction so great as the feeling that you have done your duty. 
You may say this is a hard place to put you; so it is. 1 say it is a hard 
place for the prosecution. It is a hard place for my friends upon the 
other side. All that this man could have, he has had. All the protection; 
every charity of the law; the support of all the friends he 
needed; all the money required; two long trials; one long search- 
ing year in which to find out some way in which to prove him- 
self innocent. And now, gentlemen of the jury, what is your 
duty, upon your consciences, and your oaths? Counsel talks about giving 
the prisoner the benefit of a reasonable doubt. Gentlemen, it must be a 
reasonable doubt; a doubt that you can give a reason for. If you acquit 
this man, you must see a highway out of this case in which you can travel. 
You must give a reason to your neighbors, your consciences and your God. 
It must be no speculation. It will not do for you to talk about deflecting 
balls, nor about this being a murder by burglars as a reason for his ac- 
quittal, in my humble judgment. When you are convinced, when your 
reason is satisfied, your duty is plain, and you will be approved of all men, 
and at peace with yourselves. 

And now. gentlemen of the jury, I have stood by the grave of 
Cynthia Hendryx these many days. I hope you will permit me as I de- 
part from it forever, to cast one garland upon that grave, and pay one 
tribute to her memory. \\ hatever may be done, I thank God that Cynthia 
Hendryx lived. Her unselfish and devoted life will not be lost. The his- 
tory of her virtues, of her pure life, of her deep affection for this man, 
will be known as far as the history of this case extends; and the influence 
which she left behind her will fall upon this afflicted family, and upon this 
little son like the holy dew of Heaven. It is thus that good 
lives have their reward. It is thus that good actions are ra- 
membored. And though she was sent before her time, and though she 
was greatly neglected in her last hours by this prisoner, and though hor 
soul was pained to see her husband gone astray aa she passed away for- 



254 HAMILTON WARD. 

ever, and though she had suffering such as but few humau beiugs have ever 
borne, yet she will reap her reward. "After life's fitful fever," she sleeps 
peacefully and well. But, gentlemen of the jury, shall it come to her 
through the mysteries that connect the seen with the unseen, shall her 
guardian spirit as it hovers over her little son, come to know that this jury 
had set her murderer free, and consigned her little son to the care of Mary 
Webber? The answer is with you. 

The result in this case was secured through a mastery 
of detail, and the ability to mould into a harmonious theory 
the scattered circumstances and events that went to indicate 
the defendant's guilt. Mr. Ward often spoke of this case in 
later years, and this with one other, the Macken case, he was 
wont to regard as his greatest forensic triumphs. He never 
defended a murderer. 

Since leaving Congress Mr. Ward had been getting 
more and more interested in State politics and always at- 
tended the State conventions. In the fall of 1877, at Sen- 
ator Conkling's request, took an active part in the cam- 
paign. It was hoped at that time by the party leaders that 
the Republicans could carry the State on account of the 
dissatisfaction felt by Tammany Hall against Gov. Robinson 
and the up State Democrats. This feeling, while it did not 
defeat the Democratic ticket in 1877, brought about that 
result in 1879. 

Mr. Ward was a delegate to the State Convention which 
met at Rochester, in the former year and which was famous 
for Conkling's denunciation of George William Curtiss. He 
was put on the Committee of Resolutions, and was very active 
in the convention in his support of Conkhng's policy; speak- 
ing once in defense of Senator Piatt's speech as temporary 
chairman, and once in support of the Anti-Administration 
sentiment in the platform. 

In 1877 and 1878 Mr. Ward was retained in litigations 
to set aside town bonds issued for railroads which were 
never constructed, a form of obligation easily incurred and 
under the weight of which many towns and counties in this 
coimtry are struggling. In the case of Wilson vs. The 
Town of Caneadea, reported on appeal in the 15th Vol. of 



1878. 255 

Hun's Supreme Court Reports, at page 218, he won a not- 
able victory for the town, reheving it of a $20,000 bonded 
debt. He also secured a similar result for other towns in 
the county, the point raised being that a majority of the tax- 
payers, exclusive of those who paid only a highway or dog 
tax, had not signed the petition on which the order granting 
permission to issue bonds was made. 

In this year there was considerable talk of returning 
Mr. Ward to Congress, and lengthy complimentary notices 
appeared all over the State in the press. 

On April 30th the New York Sun says : 

It is understood that both parties in this State will embrace the occa- 
sion of the fall elections to raise the standard of our membership in Con- 
fess. There is room for improvement, especially in the country districts 
where the rule generally prevails to restrict the representative to two 
tei-ms. The effect of this unwise system has been to throw the membership 
into the hands of small politicians, with here and there a notable excep- 
tion. The better plan would be to send a man of brains and integrity to 
Congress, and then keep him there. Some States have done this and con- 
sequently they have far more influence in the House than the great State 
of New York. 

We hear that the Republicans of the Allegany district are thinking of 
nominating Hamilton AVard, who formerly represented them for six years. 
^Ir. Ward is a gentleman of ability, and took active part in the business of 
the House, and was conspicuous for his oppistion to extravagant expendi- 
tures, and to everything that bore the slightest resemblance to jobbery and 
corruption. The district will do well to nominate Mr. Ward, and we hopo 
other districts, both Republican and Democratic, will place in the field 
this fall a list of able, worthy candidates so that New York may exert her 
due share of influence in the next House. 

And even the Democrats and opposition press had 
nought but words of praise. 

The Hornellsville Times said that Mr. Ward ''served 
the district with uniform faithfulness and conspicuous abil- 
ity, and at the end of his service he retired from public life 
a poor man, but with a reputation for honesty worth more to 
him than riches." 



250 HAMILTON WAIID. 

The Elmira Gazette, the leading Democratic paper of 
the district, said on May 6th : "There is one thing in Ham's 
favor, he is no dummy, when he gets to Washington you 
know he's there," and the Allegany County Democrat of 
May 3rd said : 

Since our knowledge of the polities of this Congi-essional district, no 
Republican who has been elected to Congress has compared with him in 
ability. He was in the House during the most exciting period in our 
country's history, and while there made himself conspicuous, and this dis- 
trict had a voice which was heard and respected. 

He went to Congress at a time when jobbery and pecualtion run 
rampant among the members, but was ever found an uncompromising 
enemy to all kinds of venality. He entered Congress poor, he returue<l 
poor. However we may dislike his politics, this much we can say to his 
everlasting praise. He is a man of brains and great force of character. 
He is one of the hardest workers in the State. It is true he has had great 
ambition, and this has been alluded to by some as a crime; but a man 
without it is worse than a gutter snipe. He has his enemies, but he who 
can count none has that in his head which nature abhors— a vacuum. 

No effort was, however, put forth by Mr. Ward to 
secure the Congressional delegates and they were given to 
Mr. D. P. Richardson of Angelica, who was nominated and 
who served two terms in Congress. 

Mr. Ward was a delegate to the State Convention of 
1878, which met in Saratoga, and made a member of the 
Committee on Resolutions. The platform recommended 
by this Committee and adopted by the convention contains 
one of the earliest declarations for ''sound money," as it is 
now known, the greenback craze at that time having taken 
some hold of the popular mind. The only nominee of the 
convention was George F, Danforth, of Rochester, for 
Judge of the Court of Appeals. 

The forepart of 1879 was devoted by Mr. Ward to the 
preparation and trial of the Macken slander case. Mary C. 
Macken vs. James L. Macken, and it is to be regretted that 
Mr. Ward's summing up of this locally famous case has not 
been preserved, as the circumstances especially appealed to 
his nature, and offered the best possible opportunity for a 



MACKEX CASE 1879. 257 

display of his talents as a jury lawyer, then perhaps at their 
best. 

The Ehnira Advertiser of June 25th contained this edi- 
torial description of the trial : 

THE ALLEGANY COUNTY SLANDER CASE. 
The last case tried at Angelica, Allegany County, at the Circuit 
Court, last week was that of Mary W. Mackeu against James L. Macken, 
for slander. The parties both reside in Wellsville, and move in the best 
circles of society in that village. The plaintiff is the wife of Dr. Merritt 
Macken, a brother of the defendant. The alleged slander imputed un- 
chastity to the plaintiff in very explicit language. The trial commenced 
on Wednesday of last week, and closed on Saturday. The attorneys and 
counsel were Hon. Hamilton Ward, Clarence L. Farnum, Frank S. Smith, 
for plaintiff, and Hon. Horace Bemis, B. C. Rude, Rufus Scott, George U. 
Loveridge and O. A. Fuller for the defendant. The Judge closed his 
charge, and the jury retired about 6 o'clock Saturday evening. At about 8 
o'clock the jury came into court and rendered a verdict in favor of the 
plaintiff for eight thousiand dollars. It has been one of the most remarkable 
trials that was ever known in the history of Allegany County, and will 
justly rank as a casus celebra in the annals of jurisprudence everywhere. 
When the verdict of the jury was announced, a shout and cheer went up 
that made the walls of the old Court House shake, and a rush was made for 
Mr. Ward and his client, while congratulations were in order. While Mr. 
Ward was summing up half of the eyes in the court I'oom were dim with 
tears of sympathy for the woman, and it was evident that she must recover 
a verdict. Although he has met with great success as a lawyer, yet the 
result of this trial has been the grandest forensic triumph of his life. What 
seemed to his opponents like ropes of steel, were brusheil away like cob- 
webs, and with a scholarly diction and masterly skill, he carried the jury 
by storm, as was evidenced by the large verdict of $8,000 in favor of the 
plaintiff. 

The judgment stood, and the defendant, who had put 
his property out of his hands, spent six months in the Steu- 
ben County Jail luider a body execution. Nothing was col- 
lected under the judgment. Dr. Macken restored his wife 
to her place in his home, but her subsequent conduct did not 
justify her "vindication." 

In this year Mr. Ward became an active candidate for 
the office of Attornev-General. The row in the Democratic 



258 HAMILTON WARD. 

party rapidly coming to a head gave assurance of Republican 
success, and Roscoe Conkling, then the undisputed leader of 
the party, was favorable. In the spring various papers 
throughout the State advocated this candidacy, and the ever 
friendly Elmira Advertiser of May 3rd urged him as a can- 
didate of the southern tier. 

The Hornellsville Tribune of May loth said: 

"Our Republican contemporaries of tliis section are pushing the nom- 
ination of Hon. Hamilton Ward for Attorney-General on the raidcal ticket 
this fall. We do not know that we have any objections, and are rather 
inclined to believe that they would not be entertained if we had, Mr. Ward 
is a gentleman who has the faculty of making many very warm and en- 
thusiastic friends, both in his own party and out, as well as gaining many 
very vindictive enemies in his own political household, which on general 
principles, is in his favor, as it shows he is not accustomed to the lowest 
wiles of the politician, for he would put himself as much out of the way to 
do a favor to the humblest constituent as he would to snub a cheeky and 
importunate claimant of political importance. There is one thing that we 
will say for the bald headed little bauty, and that is that he was in Con- 
gress and in high official favor during the worst era of radical rascality, 
fraud and rottenness for three terms, and came away poorer than when he 
went in." 

There was a general feeling throughout the State that 
the nomination would be a proper one. Through John W, 
Vrooman and others, Herkimer County, Mr. Ward's birth- 
place, was brought into line, aud letters from prominent men 
all over the State indicated an approval of his candidacy. 

The convention assembled at Saratoga on Sept. 3rd, 
and Mr, Ward attended at the head of the Allegany County 
delegation, which was as follows ; Hamilton Ward,, H, H. 
Wakely, W. R. McEwan, Charles S. Hall, Frank S. Smith 
and Hiram Dimmick. 

Many famous men were in this convention, men who 
swayed public opinion and controlled public afifairs. An- 
other generation will forget them, but they are entitled to a 



NOMINATED ATTORNEY GENERAL. 259 

place here. There was Charles Emory Smith, of Albany, 
now Postmaster-General; E. C. Mersereau, of Broome; Dr. 
Van Aernam, of Cattaraugus; Walter L. Sessions, whose 
brilliant political sun was to sink in a Senatorial bribery in- 
vestigation, and ex-Governor Reuben E. Fenton, of Chau- 
tauqua; C. C. D wight, later Justice of the Supreme Court and 
Sereno Payne from Cayuga, now Republican leader in Con- 
gress; Charles S. Fairman, of Chemung; S. A. Kellogg, of 
Clinton, now a Justice of the Supreme Court ; B. Piatt Car- 
penter, of Dutchess; James D. Warren and James H. Rob- 
erts, later State Comptroller, of Erie; Vice-President Wil- 
liam A. Wheeler, of Franklin; Titus Shepherd, of Herki- 
mer; Jacob Worth, for years the party boss of Kings; E. A. 
Nash, now a Supreme Court Justice, and James W. Wads- 
worth, of Livingston ; General Daniel E. Sickles, Charles H. 
Trainor, William H. Laimbeer, Cornelius Van Cott, Robert 
Ray Hamilton, grandson of Alexander Hamilton ; Thurlow 
Weed. Chester A. Arthur, later Vice-President and Presi- 
dent of the United States, and Levi P. Morton, later Gover- 
nor of New York and Vice-President, of New York ; Rich- 
ard Crowley, later a Member of Congress, and Timothy E. 
Ellsworth, leader of the present State Senate, of Niagara; 
Roscoe Conkling, of Oneida; E. G. Lapham, later U. S. Sen- 
ator from Ontario ; Henry A. Childs, now a Justice of the 
Supreme Court, of Orleans; Hamilton Fish. Jr., of Putnam; 
William E. Kisselburg, of Rensselaer; George William Cur- 
tiss, of Richmond; James W. Husted and Ira M. Hedges, of 
Rockland; Leslie W. Russell, later Attorney-General and 
Supreme Court Justice, and G. S. Erwin. of St. Lawrence ; 
C. A. Hawley. of Seneca ; Franklin D. Sherwood and 
Stephen T. Hayt, of Steuben ; Thomas C. Piatt, later United 
States Senator and party leader of Tioga ; George H. Sharp, 
later Speaker of the House, of Ulster; Henry G. Burleigh 
and Isaac B. Baker, whose fueds have made Washington 
famous, and W. J. Humphrey, Byron Healy and George G. 
Hoskins. of \\S'oming. 

The Conkling, or anti-administration forces, were in 
control of the convention, but they wore their laurels calm- 



2G0 HAMILTON AYARD. 

ly and made no effort to disquiet Vice-President Wheeler, 
George William Curtiss and Judge W. H. Robertson, the 
administration leaders. The ticket nominated was as fol- 
lows : 

For Governor — A. B. Cornell, of New York. 

For Lieutenant-Governor — George G. Hoskins, of 
Wyoming. 

For Comptroller — J- W. Wadsworth, of Livingston. 

For Secretary of State — General J. B. Carr, Rensselaer. 

For Treasurer — N. D. Wendell, of Albany. 

For Attorne3^-General — Hamilton Ward, of Allegany. 

For vState Engineer — Howard Soule, of Onondaga. 

The platform was brief: 

The Republicans of New York, pledging ourselves anew to National 
supremacy, equal rights, free elections and honest money, declare these 
principles: 

First — The Republic of the United States is a Nation and not a 
league. The Nation is supreme in its own constitutional sphere. It is 
girded with power to guard its own life, to protect its own citizens, to 
regulate its own elections and to execute its own laws. The opposite doc- 
trine of State sovereignty is the baleful mother of nullification, secession 
and anarchy. Republicanism stands for National supremacy in National 
affairs and State rights in State concerns. Democracy stands for State 
sovereignty, with its own twin heresy, that the Union is a mere confederacy 
of States. 

Second — To refuse necessary supplies for the Government, with the 
design of compelling the unwilling consent of a co-ordinate and independent 
branch to odious measures, is revolution. To refuse appropriations for the 
execution of existing and binding laws is nullification. We arraign the 
Democratic Representatives in Congress as guilty both of revolutionary at- 
tempts and nullifying schemes, and we reprobate their action as calculated 
to subvert the Constitution and to strike at the existence of the Govern- 
ment itself. 

Third — The safety of the Republic demands free and pure elections. 
The Democratic Congress has attempted by dictation, by caucus, by threats 
of starving the Government, and by months of disturbing agitation, to 
break down the National election laws. We denounce this effort as a con- 
spiracy to overthrow the safeguards of free suffrage and to open the 
ballot-box to the unchecked domination of the rifle-clubs of the South aiiil 



STATE PLATFOK.M iSi'.). 2<51 

the repeaters of New York. We declare our uncompromising opposition to 
any repeal of these just, protective laws; and the Republican Senators and 
Representatives in Congress for their resistance to this attempt, and I'resi- 
deut Hayes, for his veto meassages, deserve and receive our hearty ap- 
proval. 

Fourth — The Republican party neither justifies nor tolerates military 
interference with elections. It se^ks only to protect the ballot-box from 
the interference of force and fraud. It repels the false charges and de- 
nounces the false pretences of conspirators, who, while professing free 
elections every whiere, sustain mob law in the South; while inveighing 
against troops at the polls to protect citizens, refuse to prohibit nrmed clubs 
from surrounding the ballot box to intimidate thi-m; and, while affecting 
that the soldier's bayonet will overawe free electors, remain silent when the 
assassin's bullet seals the fate of political independence. 

Fifth— We call upon the people to remember that the Democratic 
party forced the extra session of Congress without warrant or excuse; 
that it prosecuted its partisan purposes by revolutionary methods; that 
it persistently obstructed resumption, and still constantly presses disturbing 
measures; that it reopened sectional questions closed by the National tri- 
umph, and threatens to repeal the war legislation; that its Southern element 
answers conciliation only with violence; that its hope of success rests 
alone on a solid South, and that its triumph would make the solid South 
the ruling force of the Nation. We recognize that the great body of the 
people who defended the Union, of whatever party name, are equally 
patriotic and equally interested in good government, and we earnestly 
invoke them to unite in resisting the dangerous designs of a party organ- 
ization under the sway of those who were lately in rebellion and seek to re- 
gain in the halls of legislation what they lost on the field of batte. 

Sixth — The successful resumption of specie payments, despite Dem- 
ocratic predictions and hostility, is the crowning element of the Republican 
financial policy. Followed by returning National prosperity, improved 
credit, a refunded debt and reduced interest, it adds another to the triumphs 
which prove that the Republican party is equal to the highest demands. 
Our whole currency should be kept at par with the monetary standard of 
the commercial world, and any attempts to debase the standard, to depre- 
ciate the paper or deteriorate the coin should be firmly resisted. 

Seventh — The claims of the living and the memories of the dead de- 
fenders of the Nation conjure us to protest against the partisan and un- 
patriotic greed which expels old Union soldiers from their well-deserved 
rewards, and advances Confederate soldiers to their places. 

Eighth — As the pledge and proof of its economy in State admiuisti-a- 
tion, the Republican party, in spite of prolonged Democratic rt'sistaacc, 



262 HAMILTON WARD. 

proposed and passed the Constitutional amendments which restrict the 
expense of the canals to their receipts, and reforms the whole system of 
canal and prison management, and by extinguishing the public indebtedness 
and relieving the people from any further tax; therefore it effected a great 
saving in State taxation. These fruits of Republican measures the Demo- 
crats have brazenly attempted to appropriate as their own. Appealing to 
the records in support of our own declaration, we pronounce their claims 
unfounded, and hold up their authors as public impostors. 

Ninth — The inequalities of taxation, which press most upon those least 
able to bear them, should be remedied. To this end the Republican Legis- 
lature created a co-mmission to revise the assessment and tax laws, and to 
reach a class of property which now largely escapes; and we remind the 
people that this salutary reform was unwarrantably defeated by the present 
Democratic Executive. 

Tenth — Moneyed and transportation corporations are not alone the 
works of private enterprise, but are created for public use, and with due 
regard to vested rights it is the clear province and the plain duty of the 
State to supervise and regulate such corporations as to secure the just and 
impartial treatment of all interested; to foster the industrial and agricul- 
tural welfare of the people, and with a liberal policy favor the public water 
ways and maintain the commercial supremacy of the State. We look to the 
inquiry now in progress, under the direction of the Legislature, to develop 
the facts which will guide to all needed action. 

One of the surprises of the;' convention was Senator 
Conkling's advocacy of Mr. Ward's nomination, the only- 
candidacy supported by him on the floor of the convention. 
This action was an agreeable surprise to Mr. Ward and his 
friends, it having been previously understood that Mr. 
Frank Smith was to nominate. 

The New York Tribune, describing the nomination, 
says: 

Hamilton Ward, of Allegany County, was then suggested for Attor- 
ney-General. E. D. Morgan, of New York, nominated General Henry B. 
Tremain, of New York. Senator Conkling, to the great surprise of the 
convention, then addressed the chair. In a deferential manner he said that 
he would like to take the liberty to point out that the southern tier of 
counties had no representative on the ticket. He had known Mr. Ward in 
Congress, and could testify that he was a man of great ability, and one 
that in the darkest hour of the rebellion served his country loyally in the 
House of Representatives. He felt at liberty to say this because Mr. 



NOMINATION FOR ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 2G3 

Ward was a gentleman with whom he had not always agreed on political 
questions. Mr. Morgan thereupon withdrew Mr. Trc-main's name and Mr. 
Ward was nominated by acclamation. 

The usual approval of the ticket was manifested and the 
Tribune of the 4th said of Mr. Ward: 

Hamilton Ward, the candidate for Attorney-General, has had a not- 
able life. He was born in Herkimer County, July 3, 1829. When he was 
four years old his parents removed to Virginia, where they remained till 
he was eight years old, when they returned to New York and chose a home 
in Chemung County. There he grew to manhood, and while a very young 
man studied law at Elmira. He was admitted to the bar at Cooperstown 
in 1851, and soon afterward selected Phillipsville (now Belmont), Allegany 
County, as the place where he would btgin to practice law. He has ever 
since been a resident of the place. When a young man he was twice electe<l 
District Attorney of Allegany County. Years passed, and Mr. Ward be- 
came a prominent member of the Republican party in the western part 
of the State. In the year 1864 he was elected a member for the XXXIXth 
Congress from the XXVIIth District, which was composed of the counties 
of Allegany, Chemung and Steuben. His services were such as to win him 
a re-election to Congress in 1866 and 1868. He declined a re-election 
in 1870, and retired from Congress a poor man, his law practice 
having been neglected by him in order to properly perform his official 
duties. While in Congress he was a member of the Committee on Claims, 
of the Committee on Reconstruction, of the special committee appointed to 
invesigate the assassination of President Lincoln, and of the special com- 
mittee which drew up the articles of impeachment against President John- 
son. Mr. Ward was then, and is now, emphatically a "stalwart Repub- 
lican." 

And the next day remarked: 

(Hamilton Ward, who was nominted for Attorney-General, has had a 
State reputation for many years, having served in Congress for a number 
of terms and distinguishing himself there by his radical Republicanism.) 

After the convention Mr. Ward went at once to Wash- 
ington to secure if possible the hearty support of the admin- 



264 HAMILTON WARD. 

istration for the State ticket, and had a long and favorable 
interview with the President. 

On Sept. 8th Vice-President Wheeler wrote the follow- 
ing letter to Mr. Ward: 

My Dear Sir: — 

In pursuance of a resolution passed by the Republican State Conven- 
tion held at Saratoga on the 3rd iust., you are hereby informed that yoii 
are nominated as its candidate for the office of Attorney-General of the 
State of New York. 

Very truly yours, 

W. A. WHEELER, Presn't of Convention. 
The Hon. Hamilton Ward. 

And on the 24th Mr. Ward accepted the nomination as 
follows : 

Belmont, N. Y., Sept. 24, 1879. 
Hon. William A. Wheeler, 

Pres't of the Republican State Convention. 
Dear Sir:— 

I have received your letter informing me of my nomination by the 
State Convention held on the 3rd inst. at Saratoga as the Republican can- 
didate for Attorney-General. 

I accept the nomination and with the greater pleasure because of 
the unanimity with which it was made. 

The office is one of great trust and responsibility and if elected I 
shall endeavor to discharge its duties with strict justice and Impartiality to 
all the citizens of the State. 

Very respectfully yours, 

HAMILTON WARD. 

In the campaign which followed Mr. Ward spoke in 
almost every county of the State, and his services were in 
particular demand on account of the inexperience in public 
speaking of the other nominees. 

He made the tight to some extent on national issues 
and expressed his disapproval of the policy of the adminis- 
tration concerning the Southern outrages. 

He spoke in Rotme on Oct. 2nd as follows: 



CA:nrATnN or i.sia 265 

UON. HAMILTON WARD'S xVDDRESS. 

Hon. Hamilton Ward, of Allegany, the Republican nominee for 
Attorney-General, was introduced and received with applause. He paid a 
tribute to the statesmen of Oneida County. Horatio Seymour, notwith- 
standing the man of Gramercy Park, is the recognized head of the De- 
mocracy of the Union, and Roscoe Conkling stands unchallenged as the 
chief of Americans. God grant that his life be long spared for his imperiled 
country. The coming election will decide the position of the Empire State 
in the next Presidential contest. The voter in New York has more re- 
sponsibility than any other voter in the country, because all the other 
States ask what is New York to do. The issues before us are national. 
We are to determine which party is to elect the next President. The men 
who for four years tried to destroy theUuion, have by stupendous folly got 
control of the legislation of the United States, and you who have lost your 
sons and buried your brothers, you who stand on the pension rolls of the 
Republic — yon must get down on your knees to Confederate brigadiers to 
ask an appropriation for pensions. You have to face the record of 15,000 
martyrs in the South, who dared to assert their right to the ballot and to 
public speech and public assemblies. I know you are weary of the ques- 
tion of the South, and in this time of your returning prosperity you would 
like to put the ghostly picture behind you. But as guardians of this land you 
must be just, and see that our flag floats over a freeman, and that not even 
tte loM^est is deprived of his rights. You must see that the government is for 
and by the people. In seven years after the close of the war, by the bull- 
dozing polling in six of the States, there remained not a single Republican 
Representative in Congress and but two Senators, and the seat of one of 
these contested. Over 74,000 Republican votes were silenced by the white 
leaguers and night raiders. The South was a solid Democratic South. 
The 24 Representatives and ten Senators secured by the shotgun policy, 
placed the House and Senate in control of those who for many years tried 
to force down the Union. No other nation can show such stupendous folly. 
I was a humble member of the three Congresses succeeding the war, and 
never voted to relieve the political disabilities of any rebel. It was a gener- 
ous era. Lincoln, Johnson and Greeley were generous. We made three 
amendments to the constitution, the 13th and 14th. The 14th amendment 
provided for representation in Congress. The brigands have us by the 
throat, and they ask what we are going to do about it. I answer we will 
decrease the representation. Such a man as Grant will have the power 
and will to execute the law so that no more such shameful proceeding will 
occur as recently occurred in Texas. In that State a clergyman and his 



26G HAMILTON WARD. 

Republican friends met in a bam to consult on politics. The white leaguers 
and night raiders shot down six of them, and they were buried in the ditch 
like dogs. The minister wrote to Washington to the Attorney-General in 
substance: Is your flag a mockery? Is not every man entitled to protec- 
tion? The Attorney-General replied, telling him to apply to the courts. 
If the nation can not protect its citizens, it had better crumble in the dust. 
The Attorney-General made that answer, knowing that the country was ruled 
by men who for four years tried to overthrow the country; who furrowed it 
with graves; who placed on it six thousand millions of debt. The Southern 
Republicans are not cowards and slaves. They retreated by the light of 
their burning dwellings and the gloom of new-made graves. The rebel 
leaders came back from the field trained in war, and they turned their 
arms on those poor, ignorant men and decimated them. The North, in its 
security, once said, the sin of slavery will not be visited upon us. It is no 
affair of ours. But the war came, and you are now suffering the result. 
Learn from this history. As long as you permit the constitution to be violat- 
ed in the South and injustice to be done, you must expect that God's judg- 
ment will be visited upon you. There is blood upon the skirts of the South. 
I say to the South the blood of Cornelia Chisolm and of 14,000 martyra 
to liberty stains your hands, and all the sweet rain from heaven can not 
wash it out. It cries out to the justice of the North. It will be aroused 
and New York will roll up 50,000 Republican majority. 

The Republicans of New York have nominated A. B. Coraell for 
Governor. I am glad you respond to the name, because in these times of 
peculation and fraud it is refreshing to find one man who all agree is honest. 
We who remember the reign of Credit Mobilier. the peculations of Tweed 
and the "honesty" of Tilden, and wishiug to preserve the country in its 
integrity, want honest men. When the man of Gramercy Park was trying 
to evade the income tax, Cornell was trying to pay what the government 
decided he was not bound to pay. Cornell's life has been ransacked from 
A to Z and he has been found a strictly honest man. He has taken the 
position that people have rights as well as corporations. The Republican 
party has taken a position on the subject of taxation, and appointed a com- 
mittee to equalize it. 

The speaker then alluded to the other candidates. Mr. Hoskins he 
knew to be a good man, who served with distinction in Congress and made 
a very good presiding officer. James Wadsworth is a farmer, and a son of 
one of the brightest and bravest who laid down their lives to save the 
nation. Mr. Carr, candidate for Secretary of State, was a brave soldier 
who went out as private and returned a general, having earned all his 
promotions by wounds and blood. You know Howard Soule. I am author- 



CA:MrAIGN OF 1879. 267 

ized to Bay that he is an honest man, and in no sense the tool of corpior-j 
ations. With such a ticket, the man least entitled to support is the humbl* 
individual before you. 

I know Governor Robinson. With all his good qualities he is not 
master of the situation. It is the voice of Robinson but the hand of Tilden. 
This trickster, this cipher alley man, whom the Democracy have under- 
taken to promote over Horatio Seymour; who has grown rich as the attor- 
ney and agent of corporations; who in 18G8 was the guilty instrument of 
the Democratic organization and by whom the Republicans of New York 
were defrauded out of their electoral vote. This man, or rather his cousin, 
who offered Bawdy Nash, the poor negro of South Cai-olina, $00,000 to turn 
over the electoral votes of that State to Tilden, It was the nephew or 
uncle who tried to capture Louisiana, and who undertook to get the one- 
armed Goveraor of Florida to betray his trust. The men who made Hayes 
President; who enabled him to veto the outrages and swindles in the shape 
of Confederate Congress bills, could not be corrupted or debauched. When 
you hear Democrats talking of con-uption among Southern Republicans, 
remember Sam Tilden's barrel of money was not big enough to buy them. 

The speaker read from the Albany Journal facts and figures going to 
Bhow that under eight years of Republican rule the canals had beeu more 
profitably and economically managed and more of the canal debt had been 
paid than under the next eight years of Democratic rule. Governor Robin- 
eon says the canals under his administration were self-supporting, but 
neglects to say that the Republican Legislature had made things so that 
they could not be otherwise. The State prisons have been self-supporting 
because of the contract system; but La order to prevent that in the future, 
the Democratic convention at Syracuse did not forget to denounce the con- 
tract system. All these pretenses of reform by this Democratic Governor 
are sham and fraudulent. 

The speaker then turned his attention to the finances and refuted 
the arguments of the Greenbackers at some length. 

The address was plain and straightforward and very effective. The 
speaker was very frequently applauded. 

This speech did not meet the approval of the Adminis- 
tration or "Half-breed" wing of the party, as it was begin- 
ning to be called, and the President protested against Mr, 
Ward's speeches, and the Administration press demanded 
that he be recalled from the stump, but without effect ; later 
in the campaign he made several speeches in New York City 
which provoked favorable comment from the metropolitan 
press. 



268 HAMILTON WARD. 

At the election Nov. 4th, the entire Republican ticket 
was elected, except the State Engineer and Surveyor. 

Cornell, whose opposition was divided, had a pluraHty 
of 42,782. John Kelly, the Tammany leader and candidate, 
receiving over 77,000 votes. No Tammany candidates op- 
posed the remaining Democratic nominees, and Hoskins' 
plurality was 188; Wadsworth, who was the only can- 
didate receiving unqualified half-breed support, had 5,927 
plurality; Carr had 2,029; Wendell had 2,683; Ward had 
4,426; he ran 834 ahead of his ticket in Allegany County, 
being especially strong in the towns of Amity, Andover, Bel- 
fast, Scio and Wellsville. He also ran about 2,000 ahead in 
New York. This caused much surprise, as Mr. Ward had 
never been well known in New York, except when he was 
savagely assailed by the Tammany press for his position on 
the naturalization laws in Congress. The result, however, 
was brought about by two causes. During the campaign 
he had met John Kelly incidentially on a train, and Kelly 
apparently pleased with Mr. Ward, intimated to him that he 
would run him ahead in New York. The other cause is 
set out in a newspaper article printed in 1890, and is as fol- 
lows: 

An interestinc: incident was related at the meeting of the Allegany 
County Association of Ex-Union Prisoners held at Belmont, New York, ou 
June 18, 1890, which we believe has never before appeared in print. 

There was quite a number of old soldiers present who had suffered 
the horrors of Andersonville and other noted rebel prisons and who could 
feel a special interest in the narrative, and it will also be interesting to old 
Boldiers generally. 

The incident was this: When the Hon. Hamilton Ward was a mem- 
ber of Congress from the Twenty-seventh New York District, which com- 
prised the counties of Allegany, Chemung and Steuben, shortly after the 
war he noticed sitting at the door of the patent ofBce in Washington, a 
young man who was an apparent physical wreck and who bore unmistak- 
able evidence of having suffered the privations and hardships of prison life. 
Mr. Ward had had occasion on two successive days to visit thie patent office 
and seeing the man there the second day, like Lazarus at the gate, he 
asked him why he was there, what he wanted and whether he could render 
hiim any assistance. He told Mr. Ward that he had been confined many 



I^X'1DE^■T OF A GRATEFUL SOLDIEK. 2r,>) 

months in the Amlersonville prison and was anxious to get an interview 
with the Commissioner of Patents to see if he could not get some little 
employment for temporary help which he very much needed, but that he 
had been unable to get even an interview with the Commissioner. 

Mr. Ward was indignant at this and as Congressmen can readily get 
admittance to any of the public officers he took the man immediately before 
the Commissioner and had him state his wishes. 

A rule prevails at Washington that before giving an applicant aa 
appointment he should be recognized as from and charged to some Con- 
gressional district and recommended by some mc-mber of Congress. 

The poor fellow was asked what Congressional district he was from 
and whether he could get thio influence of his member of Congress, and he 
was obliged to confess that he could not procure any such influence, when 
Mr. Ward promptly said: "I will recommend him and you can charge him 
to the Twenty-seventh New York Congressional District." And he added: 
"Mr. Couamissioner, I believe my constituents will justify me in saying 
that whenever a poor and needy soldier with a good record wants a place iu 
your oflSce you can charge him if necessary to my district, and I file a 
standing recommendation for his appointment." 

The man got a place in the patent office. He remained there until hii 
health was somewhat restored and then resigned his place, called on Mr. 
Ward and thanked him for his kind offices and said he had some friends in 
New York City where he was going to see if he could get into business. 

This was in 1866. 

Time rolled on and Mr. Hamilton Ward was a candidate for Attorney- 
General of the State of New York in the fall of 1879. This State was close 
and the campaign was exciting. The Tammany Democrats had bolted the 
Democratic nominee for Governor, but supported the rest of the Demo- 
cratic ticket. While this seism promised to elect the Republican nominee 
for Governor, it did not look so well for the other candidates on the Re- 
publican ticket that had to meet the united efforts of the Democracy. Mr. 
Ward had gone to New York City to look after the campaign. While there 
he received a note from a gentleman saying that he would like to meet 
him on appointment, or if Mr. Ward could not .see him personally he 
wished he would send him (the writer) twelve hundred pasters upon which 
were printed his name as the nominee for Attorney-General, as they could 
be used to advantage. 

Mr. Ward made an appointment at once to meet the gentleman, who 
told him that he was very anxious to procure his election, that he was a 
member of a large manufacturing firm in New York City that employed 
seven hundred men. Five hundred of them were Democrats and voters; 
that the men had all heard of Mr. Ward and knew what he had done for 



270 HAMILTON WARD. 

him (the speaker) and they all wanted to vote for him. Mr. Ward wa» 
greatly astonished and inquired the reason. 

The gentleman said: "I am the person who was in the Andersonville 
prison and whom thirteen years ago you helped to a position in the patent 
office at Washington," and told Mr. Ward has name. 

It is needless to state that the pasters were furnished and to the as- 
tonishment of his country friends Mr. Ward was considerably ahead of his 
ticket in the city of New York. 

In some counties Mr. Ward ran slightly behind, but the 
result as a whole was very gratifying to him. 

And now, after an interval of nine years, he returned for 
a second time to public life. The office of Attorney-General 
was of course more in line with his profession than his ser- 
vice in Congress had been, and he retained his clientage and 
kept open his law office. At this time he was the picture of 
robust health and vitality and carried his fifty years with an 
ease a much younger man might have envied. His hair was 
grey and he wore a heavy redish mustache and burnsides, 
having shaved of¥ his beard several years before. Hais 
weight was about 175 pounds and he always wore a closely 
buttoned double-breasted frock coat and high hat. He was 
especially careful about the fit of his gloves and shoes, hav- 
ing remarkably small hands and feet. His habits were sim- 
ple and his bearing was genial and unassuming. 



5 CHAPTER VII. 

Attorney-General. 

On the 1st of January, 1880, Mr. Ward assumed the 
tduties of his new office, and took up his residence at the 
Delevan House, on Broadway, now the site of the new Cen- 
tral Depot. He retained as his first deputy WilHam B. Rug- 
gles, of Bath, a Democrat and first deputy under the 
previous administration. 

His other appointees were as follows : 

Charles I. Everett, of Utica, 2nd Assistant. 

John C. Winslow, of Watertown, Clerk. 

William E. Yager, of Oneonta, Clerk. 

W. Ellery Davis, of Belmont, Stenographer. 

He occupied a suite of ol^ces in the old State House, 
•northeast of the Capitol. 

Under the laws of the State of New York the Attorney- 
General is the counsel for the people in all actions to dis- 
solve corporations. And has the power to call receivers of 
the corporations to account. The abuse of trusts of this 
sort was as common then as it is to-day, and one of Mr. 
Ward's first official acts was to issue a circular letter, di- 
rected to all such receivers requiring them to state the date 
of their appointment, the amount of assets received by them, 
the sums of money disbursed, the costs of the receivership 
and the length of time necessary to complete their trust. 
This course v/as favorably commented on, and Justice Noah 
Davis of the Supreme Court wrote the following letter to 
Mr. Ward, which he afterward consented should be made 

public : 

"New York, January 31st, 1880. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward. 

My Dear Sir:— I am very glad to see by this morning's Tribune that 
you have taken steps to inquire into the management, by receivers, of the 
affairs of insolvent banks and insurance companies. You can hardly do the 
public a greater service than by most thoroughly pursuing this investigation 
and procuring the enactment of laws that will prevent the abuses which 
may be developed. 



272 HAMILTON WARD. 

In the popular mind the admindstration of justice is brought into 
great discredit by the wrongs alleged to have been committed. I trust 
your investigation will show how far this impression is unjust toward the 
Courts, and where it properly belongs in cases in which it is well founded. 

I beg you will not hesitate to follow up the investigation till every 
abuse is discovered, and its repetition prevented by severe and effective 
law. 

I am very respectfully, 

NOAH DAVIS." 

On February 27 Governor Cornell, at the request of 
the Albany County District Attorney, designated Mr. Ward 
as counsel for the people to prosecute an indictment for 
murder in the first degree against John Hughes, a middle- 
aged man of little reputation, residing in Albany, who was 
charged with having murdered Albany's leading criminal 
lawery, William J. Hadley, at his office on March 4, 1879, 
by stabbing him with a butcher knife. Hadley owed the 
defendant some money and the defense was insanity, par- 
tially caused by brooding over the debt. The trial was had 
in the old State house. It began in the latter part of Feb- 
ruary, 1880, and lasted for four weeks. The verdict was 
murder in the second degree. 

Mr. Ward's summing up was published in full and ex- 
tracts from it are as follows: 

In discussing the defense which urged the folly of the act 
as a proof of insanity, he said : 

"Gentle-men of the jury, when a man departs from the course of 
virtue and rectitude and honor, when he turns his back upon the laws of 
God, and of man, when he makes up his mind to become an Ishmealite in 
the world, when he concludes that his hand shall be against every man and 
every man's hand shall be against him, when he goes out on the broad 
ocean— the shoreless ocean,— of crime, he leaves his normal and natural 
condition, he leaves the safeguards and securities that his religion, his 
education, the counsels of his mother and the prayers of the good that have 
surrounded him, and from that hour his course is inconsistent and absurd; 
and no man ever committed a crime but what that crime was stained with 
folly and but what every step he took was a devious and uncertain step. 
Every time he stepped he tried to cover the other step. Every time he 
moved he stood in the shadow of his crime and there was that everlasting 



HUGHES MURDER CASE. 273 

consciousnoss in him — that consciousness that God had implanted in him, 
that he was a criminal, and he went staggering, staggering, staggering on 
until he reaches his doom." 

Again discussing the railings of the defendant against 
fate, he says : 

Gentlemen of the jury, when a man undertakes a long course of crime 
and folly and when he has so conducted himself that his very children ar« 
taken away from him, that all the world shuts its doors against him, when 
he becomes an outcast and an outlaw like Cain, wandering upon the face 
of the earth with the curse upon his brow, when a man reaches that point 
in his war upon society, when he has infested half the prisons of the State, 
when he has spent a large portion of his time in jails and in prisons, when 
his whole life has been a violation of law and decency — I should think that 
the time might come when he would sit down and that God given quality of 
remorse would come back whispering to his soul that he was a sinner and 
that he might realize it at such a time. Is that an evidence of insanity? 
No, no! That is an evidence of reason; it is an evidence that the man is 
conscious of his crime and his folly— conscious that the weight of the 
Almighty hand is upon him — conscious that society has turned its back upon 
him, that he is an outcast and a felon and that he is wandering abroad 
about the earth, and the pitless storm beating down upon his defenseless 
head, and without friends. Is that an evidence of insanity? It is an evi- 
dence that the man at last realizes the result of his stupendous folly and 
of his life-long crime." 

In speaking of the defense he said : 

"Well, I think that every witness they have introduced have proven 
our case. It is the attribute of truth that it invades all things. It can 
never be smothered or crushed. It is the natural voice of God and reason. 
It is the quality that carries society in all its multiplied transactions 
through its duties. It is the quality that elevates man above the brute and 
dignifies and ennobles human nature. Truth will always come out and the 
truth has come out from their witnesses on that stand." 

Later in speaking of the medical testimony where a 
physician had sworn that a knowledge of right was not in- 
stinctive, but the result of education, Mr. Ward said : 

'•So this learned professor, this speculator, who has come here to 
swear to an opinion to ask a jury to stand upon, has sworn to us that 
virtue and rectitude and honor come not from natural impulses, come not 



274 HAMILTON WARD. 

from God, come not from the soul, come not from conscience, come not 
from that quality within us that lifts us up and makes us immortal beings, 
come not from our sweet children as they prattle at our feet and climb up 
upon our knees, with innocent eyes speaking truth and virtue iu every word 
and action; come not in honesty from the young maiden in her beauty, 
modesty and purity — but all this thing is taught and that our natures are 
naturally corrupt, sordid and depraved and everything comes from educa- 
tion," 

In quite another vein, and to conclude the question of 
insanity, he said ; 

"If you should gather up all the peculiarities of any gentleman <xa 
this jury, and if any of you should be unfortunate enough to die to-day and 
leave a large amount of property and didn't please some of your sisters, 
your cousins or your aunts, and they should attempt to prove that Mr. 
Lord or Mr. Whittier or any gentleman on the jury was insane, I shouldn't 
wonder but thiat they could prove some very strange things. Sometimes 
you had sneezed when you ought not to; sometimes, maybe, you had put 
your vest on upside down; sometimes you had looked cross or unamiable; 
sometimes exhibited different feelings from others; sometimes when talking 
to somebody your eye would brighten and somebody thought it was peculiar. 
I am satisfied that if I should ever happen to accumulate a large amount 
of property— a thing I never expect to do— and I should die, and somebody 
should go to ransacking my life and pick out all the queer things I ever 
did, and get our young friend O'Malley, with his shrewdness and his skill- 
ful way of putting things together and let him spread all the ridiculous 
things I had ever done on paper and shove it up to Dr. Mosher, I tell you 
that I think that fellow would swear I was crazy, and I don't know but he 
would be right about it." 

In discussing the deceased's final statement, he said : 

"I have, as I understand it, the last statement that Mr. Hadley made 
on earth. He made it, gentlemen, under very impressive circumstances. 
The counsel on the other side takes pains to say that this was special 
pleading on the part of Mr. Hadley to undertake to carry the impression 
tbat this man, at this time, was putting up evidence against his client. 
My learned friend did himself injustice when he made that insinuation. 
When a man reaches a point where the earth is fading from his vision,—^ 
when he 'hears a voice they cannot hear that bids him not to stay, and sees 



HUGHES MURDER CASE. 275 

a hand they cannot see that beckons him away," — when all the objects of 
earth and time are vanishing, when he is about to be ushered in his belief, 
into the presence of his God, when fraud and falsehood and cheating and 
all the by-plays and trials of this world are as ashes upon the lips, wheu 
a man feels that he is to be summoned to God and to judgment, and where 
all the deeds of the flesh and of the life are to pass before that inscrutable 
Eye which looks right through the deeds of men and down into the hearts 
and Rouls of us all and which will admit of no prevarication, no dissembling, 
no special pleadings — with the blood oozing from him the precious blood — 
saying to his son-in-law that he was dying — saying to the officer that ho 
felt that he should not live — ^there was blood upon his clothes and blood upon 
the floor — blood everywhere — they take pains to prove that there was blood 
even upon the very window casings, and he was kept up by stimulants — 
at such a time I ask you was he clouded in his intellect? Didn't he know 
what he was saying? He may have forgotten things, but, gentlemen, he 
didn't lie about what he said he remembered. There comes a time in that 
Bupreme moment when there is no hypocrisy, no fraud, no falsehood. 
There comes a time, I say, in that supreme moment when the light super- 
natural seems to illuminate the soul, flashing up and bringing back to one's 
mind the keen remembrance of a lifetime. The mind thinks rapidly, it 
works quickly, it does its office with great precision, and when William J. 
Hadley made this statement he made it with the full sense of the awful 
responsibility that rested upon him." 

In this month a very bitter attack was made on Mr. 
Ward, which, commencing in the New York Sun, went gen- 
erally through the Democratic and Half Breed press of the 
State. This was in connection with the case of the People 
vs. Henry D. Denison, James J. Belden, et al., one of the 
suits which resulted from Governor Tilden's famous raids on 
the so called "canal ring," a raid which proved most expen- 
sive to the State, and which had no substantial result except 
to nominate and nearly elect Tilden President of the United 
States. The defendants were canal contractors, one of 
them. James J. Belden, of Syracuse, was a strong Half 
Breed, and later was Mayor of Syracuse, and for several 
terms represented the Onondaga County district in Con- 
gress, n'heir cou.nsel was Frank Hiscock, later U. S. 
Senator. The suit was for moneys paid these contractors 
fraudulently in excess of the amounts due under their con- 



276 HAMILTON WAKD. 

tracts. Referees were appointed who heard the evidence 
and reported that while fraud had not been proved the State 
was entitled to recover about $400,000 which had been paid 
without authority of law. The General Term reversed this 
decision, holding- that as the action w^as based on fraud, no 
recovery could be sustained without proof of fraud, and as 
no fraud had been shown that the judgment should be re- 
versed with a new trial for the plaintiff. 

The decision is reported in the 19th volume of Hun, 
New York Supreme Court Reports at page 137. The liti- 
gation up to this point had been conducted by Mr. Ward's 
predecessor, Mr. Schoonmaker, and his assistant, Mr. Paige. 
As soon as he became Attorney-General, Mr. Ward took an 
appeal from the decision of the General Term to the Court 
of Appeals, believing that no new evidence existed, that the 
case had been fully tried by his predecessor, and that the 
only chance to sustain the referee's decision was on the ques- 
tions of law involved which had been decided adversely by 
the General Term. 

It was claimed by hostile newspapers, although upon no 
reputable legal authority, that in taking the appeal to the 
Court of Appeals, Mr. Ward practically sacrificed the claims 
of the State, and that he should have gone back for a new 
trial. This was answered by a signed statement, published 
in the Albany Journal, in which Mr. Ward pointed out that 
a new trial would put the State to great expense, and that as 
no new facts could be adduced the appeal was proper. 

The sting w^as taken out of the attack by the fact that 
after an investigation of the contract by Governor Tilden 
himself, the alterations which increased the contract price 
were allow^ed and an Act was passed and signed by the Gov- 
ernor in 1875 making a sufificient appropriation therefor. 

The objection to Mr. Ward's course w^ent so far that 
shortly after the newspaper attack Assemblyman Rhodes 
introduced a resolution in the Assembly directing the Attor- 
ney-General to apply to the Court of Appeals for leave to 
withdraw^ his appeal. The resolution, however, was never 
pressed to a vote and died in committee. 



DEXISON CASE. 277 

The decision of the Court of Appeals handed down a 
short time later settled the controversy. They held that no 
fraud had been shown on the trial and that the appropriation 
for and payment of the contractor's claims were a ratification 
of the arrangement by the State. This decision is reported 
in the 8oth Volume of New York Court of Appeals Reports 
at page 656, Judge Folger writing the opinion. 

The next issue of the Albany Law Journal, the leading- 
law publication of the State, at that time ably conducted by 
that delightful scholar and splendid man, Irving Brown, said 
on page 303 of Volume 21 : 

In the case of the People v. Denison; the Court of Appeals have 
affirmed the order of the General Term which granted a new trial, and in 
accordance with the law provided for such appeals, and the stipulation 
entered into, have awarded judgment absolute for defendants. A very 
long opinion was written by .Judge Folger, but his views were not adopted 
as a whole by a majority of the members of the court. It is understood 
that five of Judge Folger's associates agreed with him that proof of fraud 
was essential to warrant a recovery under the complaint: Judge Earl alone 
dissenting from this view, and holding that the referees might without 
error have treated the action as one ex contractu. Judge Folger held that 
the State officers had exceeded their powers; that there was no authority 
to remove slope walls and substitute vertical walls, and that there had 
been no ratification of such action ;in all of which he agreed with the 
referees. He held further, however, that defendants were entitled to re- 
ceive whatever the work was worth, and that the People could recover back 
only what had been paid in excess of its real value, and that therefore the 
referees erred in giving judgment for tlie whole amount paid; in which 
Judges Miller and Earl concurred. Chief Judge Church and Judges 
Eapallo, Andrews, and Danforth, held that there had been ratification. So 
it seems that the partisan complaint against the Attoruey-Genoral for not 
taking a new trial, before going to the Court of Appeals, is not justified by 
the result. Public legal officials usually know better about these matters 
than political newspapers. 

This article was extensively copied throughout the 
State, and, with others of a similar tenor from the New York 
Commercial Advertiser, to a large extent counteracted the 
injury done Mr. Ward by the attack. 

This, however, was not the end of the litigation. Act- 



278 HAMILTON WARD. 

ing on the theory that the judgment of the Court of Appeals 
allowed their unproved counterclaim in the action the de- 
fendants entered judgment in Albany against the State in 
the sum of about $100,000. 

Mr. Ward promptly moved before Judge Theodore R. 
Westbrook at the May Special Term to vacate this judg- 
ment, and in a careful and well considered opinion the Jus- 
tice vacated the judgment. This decision was affirmed by 
the General Term and also by the Court of Appeals, which 
latter decision is reported in the 84th Volume of New York 
Reports at page 272. The argument for the people was 
made by Roscoe Conkling, the opening and closing of whose 
address to the Court is as follows : 

THE PEOPLE VS. DENNISON. 

In opening his argument for the State before the Court of Appeals 
recently, in the famous Dennison case, Senator Conkling drew this graphic 
picture of the great cry and little wool under which the Tilden reformers 
went into power: 

This case, may it please your honors, seems to belong to the irony of 
fate. It is a ti-avesty in politics and in jurisprudence. Its chief public 
lesson was taught to his disciples by one who lived five centuries before 
Mary's son walked under the palms of Palestine. China's profound student 
of men, saw as plainly as you see, the vast difference between a loud out- 
cry — that was his phrase — a loud outcry of promise, and a genuine fulfill- 
ment. The instance before us is full of this difference. 

Eight years ago, in the press, in the public assembly, at the fireside, 
at the kneading troughs, a loud outcry went forth, a voice of many tongues 
sounded an alarm. The State, it was said, was a prey to the robber. It 
was declared that jobbers had seized upon our vast and costly public works; 
that lax and venial practices had uncovered the canals to thieves, and that 
obscene birds had swooped down to the harvest to gorge themselves on 
every side with plunder and spoilation. There was too much truth in it. 
The proclaimed need of the hour was not only for new public agents, but 
for reformers, who should be "ugly honest." That I remember was the 
phrase. The people listened and believed. The sceptre of power was 
placed in hands chosen amid loud acclaims, chosen amid loud promises that 
grievances were to be redressed, that missing millions were to be restored to 
the pillaged treasury; millions were to be recovered from fraudulent con- 
tractors. The new executive establishment was composed of those con- 
spicuously chosen for services in this regard. 

The Attorney-General commenced this action. The people were at 



DENISON CASE. 270 

once plaintiff and spectator. It was leveled at a transaction chosen for Its 
aggravation as a test and selected case. The mission of this action was not 
only to assert itself but to break the way for after recoveries. Five hun- 
dred and eighty-two thousand dollars were demanded here. It was four 
hundred aud seventeen thousand dollars and interest for five years and eight 
months. The interest was $105,000. 

The $582,000 were to be recovered here, and that was to be the fore- 
runner of recoveries beyond the dreams of avarice. 

Well, referees were chosen, ponderous machinery was set in motion, 
nothing for effect was lacking either in outlay or in expectation. Ninety 
thousand dollars, I am told, were expended by the State in maintaining this 
controversy. The referees reported about $400,000. The Courts lent at- 
tentive ear. This, the highest tribunal in the State, was summoned to the 
task. The people were defeated. Here, as in the Court below, they were 
turned away empty, beaten. The result was announced as a failure. A 
failure by the authorities to make good the claim of the State. Failure, 
that was all, that was enough for the experience and the pocket of the 
taxpayers. But shortly it turned out that the end had not come, that a 
failure was but the beginning of the end, and the case now became the 
pioneer to counter theories more startling and original than unterrified 
statesmanship or zeal had ever conceived. 

Now, comes to the fore, professionel enterprise and dash to display 
before the astonished gaze of the bar, the latent possibilities and hidden 
riches of judicial proceedings. Without notice, without motion, without au 
assessment of damages, without the sanction or knowledge of any Court, 
in the Clerk's office of the county in which the venue had been laid, quietly 
and summarily a judgment was entered against the State for ninety odd 
thousand dollars damages, and for sixty odd hundred dollars costs, making 
a hundred aud one thousand dollars and some odd hundreds that the People 
of the State were fined for their rashness and fatuity in commencing this 
ill-starred ignominous litigation. 

Now comes the law officer of the State to defend those, who have 
come with a claim of more than half a million, against a penalty of one 
hundred thousand dollars for preferring it. This, so far, is the bright be- 
ginning and the bitter end of a halcyon and vociferous proceeding. 

After arguing the legal points in the case, Senator Conkling closed 
with the following reference to Attorney-General Ward, who has been 
assailed for pursuing the only course that any good lawyer would approve. 

But he has been made a mark for the arrow of many who have bended 
their bows at him. Yet so careful did he wisb to be, that exercising what I 
deem very bad judgment, as I must say, in his selection, he wanted to 
summon to his side some of his professional brethren, who might not only 



280 HAMILTON WARD. 

share with him the small modicum of responsibility that there might be, 
but whose presence might defend him from the licentious and truthless in- 
sinuation that in some way or other, he had been in sympathy with, or in 
lenity with the interests of somebody concerned in this case. It was rather 
for this reason, and not in the presumptuous hope of being able materially 
to assist Your Honors in understanding this case that I came to his side, 
as I should have liked a professional brother to come to my side had I been 
gibbeted for nothing at the cross-roads of public condemnation, in order that 
it might be fulfilled as should be spoken by somebody the prophet, that 
there is nothing so valuable, nothing so honest, nothing so void of offence 
in these times that it should not be dragged tlirough the hurricane and the 
surfeit of mire and detestable accusation. 

During this year Mr. Ward rendered opinions as Attor- 
ney-General on the State Railroad Laws, the taxation of 
bank stock and telegraph lines, and brought an action for 
the State of New York vs. The State of Louisiana on bonds 
issued by the defendant. 

During the winter of 1 880-81 he rented a furnished 
house at the head of Hamilton Street, on Lark Street, where 
he resided with his family. 

The year 1881 was the most distressing and unhappy 
year of Mr. Ward's life. Attacked by powerful Wall Street 
combinations, backed by a venal press, cheated out of a de- 
served re-nomination by his party, his friend Conkling in dis- 
grace and himself engaged in a desperate struggle to pre- 
serve his good name, the rough and ready training of his 
earlier years stood him in good stead. 

It is difficult to follow events in their chronological or- 
der during this year, but the questions taken up each in their 
turn will be : 

1st. The work of the office during the year. 

2nd. The matters connected with Senators Conkling 
and Piatt's resignation. 

3rd. The effort for a re-nomination, and 

4th. The Manhattan Railroad investigation. 

In January, 1881, at the request of the land commis- 
sioners, Mr. Ward rendered an opinion that private sales of 
public lands, as theretofore conducted, were illegal, and that 
all public lands must be sold at public auction. This de- 
cision was adopted, and saved the State thousands of dollars 



ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 281 

yearly. It, however, broke up a syndicate of land agents, 
who were thereafter numbered among Mr. Ward's enemies. 

Mr. Ward was always fond of walking, and preferred a 
walk where he could be near the water. The New York 
Central Bridge across the Hudson river was for him a favor- 
ite early morning promenade, as there was a footway beside 
the tracks. 

In 1866 the directors of the bridge company, with the 
approval of the canal board, had fixed a rate of toll by which 
eacli passenger and ton of freight crossing the bridge paid a 
considerable toll, and each foot passenger three cents. This 
was a heavy tax on the laborers, hundreds of whom crossed 
the bridge, three or four times daily, on their way to and 
from their work in Greenbush, and the toll on freight and 
passengers amounted yearly to a vast sum of money. On 
February i8th, Mr. Ward brought this matter to the atten- 
tion of the Canal Board, and asked for a committee which 
was appointed to investigate the matter and report. 

In July the committee, Mr. Ward being chairman, 
recommended that the permission of the Board to the Rail- 
road Company be rescinded, and that no toll be levied on 
passengers and freight, and only two cents on each foot pas- 
senger be allowed. This report was adopted and enforced 
by the board, against the strenuous opposition of the New 
York Central Railroad, as the bridge profits at that time 
were estimated at $600,000 yearly, most of the Bridge Com- 
pany's stock being owned by officers of the railroad. 

As a capitol commissioner Mr. Ward was equally ac- 
tive. The Hallowell Granite Company of Maine, a corpor- 
ation said to have been backed by James G. Blaine, had the 
contract for furnishing the granite for the new capitol at 
ninety-nine cents per cubic foot. Mr. Ward thought this 
excessive, and called for an investigation. It was found that 
350,000 more feet would be needed to complete the build- 
ing, and new^ bids being called for the same company offered 
to furnish the same granite for sixty-eight cents per cubic 
foot, thus saving the State over $100,000. This made more 
enemies. 

Telegraph companies had for years largely escaped tax- 



282 HAMILTON WARD. 

alion on the ground that their lines were not real estate. 
Mr. Ward in a well considered opinion called to the atten- 
tion of the assessors of Montgomery County the fact that 
the lines were real estate, and the lines were taxed, and this 
precedent has since been generally followed throughout the 
State, and has greatly relieved other property, and is now a 
part of the statute law of the State. About the same time 
upon the application of interested parties, Mr. Ward decided 
that the consolidation of the three telegraph companies then 
doing business in the State was lawful, and the New York 
World of February 5th says on this subject: 

Evidently Attorney-General Ward is an Attorney-General of the 
State and not of demagogues or "strikers." This was not the belief, ap- 
parently, of the people who yesterday begged him to grant an "applica- 
tion of certain citizens to the Attorney-General to begin an action 
against the telegraph companies to prevent consolidation." Every law- 
yer knows how easy it is to begin an action, even when the beginning of 
it may be regarded as the practical end of it. Every lawyer knows, too, 
how, readily many Attorneys-General in the past have authorized ac- 
tions from political or personal complaisance which they must have be- 
lieved to be untenable. Attorney -General Ward very emphatically says : 
"An attempt to maintain the action would be discreditable to the law 
officers of the State and of no avail to the people." New York has 
known Attorneys-General who would have hastened to bring an action 
as an appeal from Judge Barrett's chambers order and decision merely 
for the sake of winning a round or two of applause from the ground- 
lings or from the bulls' and bears of Wall Street. Attorney-General 
Ward has shown that in the discharge of his duty he is governed not 
only by a decent respect for his oath of office but by his personal con- 
victions as a lawyer. 

There was a number of other litigations during these 
two years, but the important ones, except the Manhattan 
litigation, have been specified. 

On May 14th, 1881, the New York State Senators. 
Conkling and Piatt, startled the country by resigning from 
the U. S. Senate. Their letter to Governor Cornell explain- 
ing their position was as follows : 



RESIGNATION OF CONKLING AND PLATT. 283 

THE SENATORIAL DIFFICULTY. 

Conkling and Piatt — Reasons Impelling Their Resignations. 

Washington, D. C, May 14, 1881. 

Sir: — Transmitting, as we do, our resignations, respectively, of 
the great trusts, with which New York has honored us, it is fit that we 
acquaint you, and through you the Legislature and people of the State, 
with the reasons which, in our judgment, make such a step respectful 
and necessary. 

Some weeks ago, the President sent to the Senate, in a group, 
the nominations of several persons for public offices already filled. 

One of the these offices is the Collectorship of the Port of New 
York, now held by General Merritt; another is the Consul-Generalship 
at London, now held by General Badeau; another is Charge de Affairs 
to Denmark, held by Mr. Cramer; another is the Mission to Switzer- 
land, held by Mr. Fish, a son of the former distinguished Secretary 
of State. Mr. Fish had in deference to an ancient practice, placed 
his position at the disposal of the new administration, but, like the 
other persons named, he was ready to remain at his post if permitted 
to do so. 

All of these officers, save only Mr. Cramer, are citizens of New 
York. 

It was proposed to displace them all, not for any alleged fault, 
or for any alleged need or advantage of the public service, but in order 
to give the great office of Collector of the Port of New York to Mr. 
William H. Robertson as a "reward" for certain acts of his, said to 
have "aided in making the nomination of General Garfield possible." 

The chain of removals thus proposed, was broken by General 
Badeau 's promptly declining to accept the new place to which he was 
to be sent. 

These nominations summoned every member of the Senate to 
say whether he "advised" such a transaction. 

The movement was more than a surprise. We had been told 
only a few hours before, that no removals in the New York ofl[ices were 
soon to be made or even considered, and had been requested to with- 
hold the papers and suggestion bearing on the subject, which had been 
sent to us for presentation, should occasion arise, until we had notice 
from the President of his readiness to receive them. 

Learning that the Vice-President was equally misled, we went 
to Mr. James, the cabinet officer from our State, and learned, that 
though he had spent some time with the President on the morning of 
the day the nominations were sent in. no disclosure of an intention to 



284 HAMILTON WARD. 

send them had been made to him.andthat he first knew of the matter 
by hearsay following the event. 

After earnest reflection and consultation we believed the pro- 
ceedings unwise and wrong, whether considered wholly in relation to 
the preservation and integrity of the public service and the public ex- 
ample to be set, or in relation also to the integrity of the Republican 
party. 

No public utterance of comment or censure was made by either 
of us, in the Senate or elsewhere; on the contrary, we thought that the 
President would reconsider action so sudden and hasty, and would at 
least adopt less hurtful and objectional modes of requitting personal or 
individual service. 

In this hope the following paper was prepared and signed and 
presented by Mr. James to the President, who was subsequently in- 
formed that you had authorized your name to be added also: 
"To the President: — 

We beg leave to remonstrate against the change in the Collector- 
ship at New York by the removal of Mr. Merritt and the appointment 
of Mr. Robertson. The proposal was wholly a surprise. We heard of 
it only when the several nominations involved in the plan were an- 
nounced in the Senate. We had only two days before this been in- 
formed from you that a change in the Customs oflBces at New York, 
was not contemplated, and quite ignorant of a purpose to take any ac- 
tion now, we had no opportunity, until after the nominations, to make 
the suggestions we now present. 

We do not believe that the interests of the public service will be 
promoted by removing the present Collector and putting Mr. Robertson 
in his stead. Our opinion is quite the reverse, and we believe no 
political advantage can be gained for either the Republican party or its 
principles. Believing that no individual has claims or obligations 
which should be liquidated in such a mode, we earnestly and respect- 
fully ask that the nomination of Mr. Robertson be withdrawn. 

(Signed) CHESTER A. ARTHUR, 

T. C. PLATT, 
THOMAS L. JAMES, 
ROSCOE CONKLING." 

This paper was presented to the President by Mr. James, on 
Monday, the 28th day of March. Knowing the frequency with which 
every one of the twenty Presidents of the Republic, and markedly the 
present incumbent, had withdrawn nominations on less serious repre- 
sentations, we did not apprehend that such a suggestion would be 
treated as an intrusion, or an invasion of any prerogative of the nom- 
inating power. 



RESIGNATION OF CONKLING AND PLATT. 285 

We were disappointed. Immediately the public press, especially 
in articles and despatches written by those in close and constant asso- 
ciation with the President and with an influential member of his Cab- 
inet, teemed with violent denunciations oi the Senators from New York 
for "opposing the administration" and "dictating" to the President. 
Persons who visited the Executive Mansion reported the President as 
resentful, and impatient of hesitation "to advise and consent" to what 
he proposed. We had made — we have made no assault upon anybody. 
We have at all times refused to answer questions by representatives 
of the press, or to make complaint or comment or even denial of the 
many truthless charges published against us by the ofBcious champions 
of "the Administration." Indeed, beyond confidential consultation with 
brother Senators and officials, we have said nothing until now on the 
subject. 

Nor have we or either of us "promoted the deadlock in the Sen- 
ate" in order to prevent or influence action on any nomination, nor 
have we ever so stated. 

Immediately after the nominations were published, letters and 
telegrams in great numbers came from every part of the State from its 
leading citizens, protesting against the proposed changes and con- 
demning them on many grounds. Several thousands of the leading 
mercantile firms of New York — constituting, we are informed, a major- 
ity of every branch of trade — sent us remonstrances. 

Sixty of the eighty-one Republican members of the Assembly, by 
letter or memorial, made objection. Representatives in Congress, 
State officials, business men, professional men, commercial, industrial 
and political organizations are among the remonstrants, and they speak 
from every section of the State. 

Besides the nominations already referred to, there were await- 
ing the action of the Senate several citizens of New York, named for 
ofl[ices connected with the courts. District Attorneys and Marshals. 
These were re-appointments. Most of them had been originally com- 
misssioned by Mr. Hayes. They were certified by the Judges of the 
courts and many other eminent persons who attested the faithfulness 
and merit of their service and recommended their continuance. They 
were not presented by us. We have not attempted to "dictate," nor 
have we asked the nomination of one person to any office in the State. 
Indeed, with the sole exception of the written request set forth above, 
we have never even expressed an opinion to the President in any case, 
unless questioned in regard to it. 

Some days ago the President abruptly withdrew, in one and the 
same act, the names of General Woodford and Mr. Tenney, and of the 
two Marshals. 



286 HAMILTON WARD. 

This unprecedented proceeding, whether permissible by law or 
not, was gravely significant. The President had nominated these offi- 
cers after they had been weighed in the balance. Their official records 
were before him and had been fully scrutinized and approved. It must 
be presumed he thought the nominations fit to be made and that it was 
his duty to appoint them. There is no allegation that he discovered 
unfitness in them afterwards. It could hardly be that he had discov- 
ered unfitness in all of them alike. What then was the meaning and 
purpose of this peremptory step? It was immediately stated, as if by 
authority, and seems to be admitted, that the purpose v/as to coerce 
the Senate or Senators to vote as they would not vote, if left free from 
executive interference. 

The design was to control the action of Senators touching mat- 
ters committed by the Constitution to the Senate, and to the Senate 
exclusively. It has been suggested in addition, that by recalling these 
nominations and holding them in his own hands, the President might, 
in the event of the failure of another nomination, use them to compen- 
sate that failure. If it can be supposed that all these public trusts are 
to be, or would in any event be, made personal perquisites to be hand- 
led and disposed of, not only to punish independence of senatorial 
votes and action, but to liquidate the personal obligations of any in- 
dividual, however high in station, the conditions are utterly vicious 
and degrading, and their acceptance would compel the representatives 
of States to fling down their oath and representative duties at the 
footstool of the executive power. 

Following this sweeping and startling executive act, came omin- 
ous avowals that dissent or failure to "advise and consent," would be 
held an act of offense, exposing all Senators from whatever State, to 
executive displeasure. 

Thus we find ourselves confronted by the question whether we 
shall surrender the plain right and the sworn duty of Senators, by con- 
senting to what we believe to be vicious and hurtful, or be assigned 
the position of disloyalty to an administration which we helped to bring 
in, and the success of which we earnestly wish, for every reason and 
motive which can enter into the case. 

We know no theory avowed by any party which requires such 
submission as is now exacted. Although party service may be fairly 
considered in making selections of public officers, it can hardly bei 
maintained the Senate is bound to remove without cause incumbents 
merely to make places for those whom any individual, even the Presi- 
dent or a member of his cabinet, wishes to repay for being recreant to 
others or serviceable to him. 



RESIGNATION OF CONKLING AND PLATT. 287 

Only about two years ago the Senate advised that General Mer- 
ritt be appointed Collector at New York. It is understood that among 
the Senators who so advised was Mr. Wiudom, now Secretary of the 
Treasury and head of the department whose subordinate General Mer- 
ritt is. Another Senator, known to have given this advice, was Mr. 
Kirkwood, now Secretary of the Interior. It is said that like the Post- 
master-General from our own State, these cabinet officers were not 
taken into consultation touching the removal of General Merritt; but 
their sworn and official action as Senators is none the less instructive. 

That the late Secretary of the Treasury and the administration, 
up to its expiration, less than ten weeks ago, approved General Merritt 
as an officer is well known, and it is nowhere suggested that any citizen 
had petitioned for his removal, or that official delinquency on his part 
is the reason for it. 

In the place of an experienced officer, in the midst of his term 
fixed by law, it is proposed suddenly to put a man who has had no 
training for the position, and who cannot be said to have any special 
fitness for his official duties. 

In the inaugural of President Garfield, delivered on the fourth of 
March, stand these words: 

"The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis 
until it is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the 
protection of those who are entrusted with the appointing power 
against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused 
by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incum- 
bents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time, ask Con- 
gress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive de- 
partments, and prescribe the grounds upon which removals can be 
made during the terms for which incumbents have been appointed." 

How good the distinction is which would make major offices a 
prey to "intrigue and wrong" and shield "minor offices" from like 
havoc, and whether the collectorship of the country should belong to 
the exposed or to the protected class, need not be decided here. 

Assuming General Merritt to be an officer of average fitness and 
honesty, it might be reasonably argued that all Senators should with 
alacrity advise his displacement by a man of obvious superiority. 
Possibly it might be said that all should advice the selection in Gen. 
Merritt's place of a man who without superior fitness had rendered his 
country, or even his party, conspicuous and exalted service. 

The case in hand does not belong to either of these classes. 

The vocation of Mr. Robertson and his Legislative and profes- 
sional experience and surroundings, do not denote superiority in the. 



288 HAMILTON WARD. 

qualities, and the knowledge, business habits and familiarity with the 
revenue laws and system of the United States which might make him 
more competent than General Merritt to collect the vast revenues and 
administer the vast business pertaining to the port of New York. Cer- 
tainly he cannot in this respect be held an exception to rules of right 
and consistency on which the Constitution and laws have placed the 
public service. 

We know no personal or political service rendered by Mr. Rob- 
ertson so transcendent that the Collectorship of New York should be 
taken in the midst of a term and given to him as recompense. 

Mr. Robertson is reported by the New York Tribune to have de- 
clared that his nomination was a "reward" — a "reward" for action as a 
delegate to the National Convention. 

If Mr. Robertson in his action was influenced by a sense of duty, 
if he voted and acted his honest convictions, it is difficult to see what 
claim he has for any reward, not to speak of such great reward. 

The action of which an estimate is thus invited is understood to 
be thus: 

Mr. Roberston and sixty-nine other men accepted from a State 
convention a certain trust. They sought and accepted the position 
of agents or delegates to a National Convention. The State conven- 
tion declared a plainly stated judgment and policy to be observed and 
supported by those it commissioned. To this declaration all selected 
as delegates gave implied consent. 

But several of them in addition, made most specific personal 
pledges and engagements to exert themselves in good faith throughout 
to secure the nomination of General Grant. They made this pledge as 
the means of obtaining their own appointment as delegates, and they 
did, as we both personally know, obtain their seats in the National Con- 
vention upon the faith of their personal statements of their earnest- 
ness and fidelity. 

The obligation thus assumed, we understood to involve integrity 
as much as the obligation of one who receives the proxy of a stock- 
holder in a corporation upon the pledge and promise to vote as his 
principal would vote. 

Whether Mr. Robertson was or was not himself bound not only 
by honor and implication, but by expressly giving his word, becomes 
quite immaterial in view of the claim made for him. 

It is insisted that he "organized the bolt," or, as it has been 
sometimes stated, "he was the leader of the bolt." This is to say that 
he invited, persuaded, induced others whom he knew had given their 
word, and had obtained their seats by doing so, to violate their word 



RESIGNATION OF CONKLING AND PLATT. 289 

and betray not only Republicans asssembled in State convention, but 
the Republicans of their districts as well, who had trusted in their 
honor. 

Whoever counsels and procures another to do a dishonest or dis- 
honorable act must share with that other the guilt, and should share 
also the odium justly attaching to it. 

We are therefore wholly unable upon whatever ground we put 
it, to see justification for ourselves should we become parties to using 
the public trusts which belong to the people, to requite such services in 
such modes. 

But the appliances employed to effect results, set up new stand- 
ards of responsibility and invade, as we believe, the truths and prin- 
ciples on which the separate and co-ordinate branches of the govern- 
ment stand. 

A Senator has his own responsibility. He is amenable to his 
State and to the body of which he is a member. He is bound by his 
oath to "advise and consent" on his conscience and judgment before 
God. 

Whatever or whoever else may constrain him, he is to be exempt 
from executive menace or disfavor on one hand, and executive induce- 
ments on the other. 

Long standing on the orders of the House of Commons, has been 
declaration that a member shall suffer expulsion who even reports the 
wishes of the executive head of the government to influence the votes 
of members. 

The British Constitution is not more jealous than ours in this 
regard. 

To give advice, and honest independent advice as to an appoint- 
ment proposed, is as much the right and duty of a Senator as it is the 
right or duty of the President to propose the name. Be his advice one 
way or the other, it is no more an act of disrespect or treason to the 
nominating power, than the verdict of a juror or the decision of a 
judge. 

The idea that the Senate is simply to find out what is wanted and 
then do it, we cannot believe safe or advisable, and thus far no party 
has dared or descended to set up such a test of party fidelity or alleg- 
iance. 

In this instance such prominence has been given to the subject, 
and such distrust has been expressed of the correctness of our posi- 
tions, that we think it right and dutiful to submit the matter to the 
power to which we are bound and ever ready to bow. 

The Legislature is in session, it is Republican in majority, and 



290 HAMILTON WARD. 

New York abounds in sons quite as able as we to bear her message and 
commission in the Senate of the United States. 

With a profound sense of the obligation we owe, with devotion 
to the Republican party and its creed of liberty and right, with rever- 
ent attachment to the great State whose interests and honor are dear 
to us, we hold it respectful and becoming to make room for those who 
may correct all errors we have made.and interpret aright all duties we 
have misconceived. 

We therefore enclose our resignation, but hold fast the privilege, 
as citizens and Republicans, to stand for the constitutional rights of 
all men and all representatives, whether of the States, the nation, or 
the people. 

We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient ser- 
vants, 

ROSCOE CONKLING. 
THOMAS C. PLATT. 

To His Excellency, Gov. Cornell. 

This step was taken upon the suggestion of Senator 
Piatt, and was not first proposed by ConkHng, as generally 
supposed. Immediately a contest in the New York Legisla- 
ture began to choose their successors. Men, whose political 
fortunes had been created by Conkling, deserted him. The 
whole power of the national administration was devoted to 
his defeat, and even Cornell, who owed his office absolutely 
to Conkling and Piatt, opposed their return. For several 
weeks the contest was waged in the New York Legislature, 
and finally resulted in the election of E. G. Lapham, of Can- 
andaigua, and Warren Miller, of Herkimer. 

Conkling withdrew from politics, and Piatt took up 
single handed the fight, which fourteen years later restored 
the State to the Republican column and ultimately replaced 
him in the Senate. During this contest over the re-election, 
Conkling sent Mr. Ward to Cornell. The story is best told 
in an article in the Lockport Sun, April 29th, 1893, as fol- 
lows : 

Few public men in Western New York possess a wider acquaint- 
ance with politics and political history than does Judge Hamilton Ward 
cf Belmont, Allegany County, who is now holding court in this city. 



RESIGNATION OF CONKLING AND PLATT. 291 

As representative in Congress, Attorney-General and Judge of the Su- 
preme Court he has witnessed as a personal participant some of the 
most exciting political dramas in our history, and as he is a genial, 
gentlemanly good fellow off the bench, his acquaintances sometimes 
impose upon his good nature by engaging him in conversation upon 
these political episodes for hours at a time. 

A little knot of listeners gathered about him at The Grand, a 
Sun representative among them. Judge Ward was an old-time stal- 
wart and has never ceased to admire Roscoe Conkling, hence it is not 
singular that he is not an admirer of ex-Gov. Cornell, whose coldness 
and ingratitude cost Conkling a re-election to the Senate in 1881. 
Judge Ward was Attorney-General at that exciting period. 

CORNELL'S COLDNESS. 

"I do not admire Gov. Cornell," he said. "I have never spoken to 
him since 1881. I was requested by Senator Conkling at a critical 
point in h' struggle for re-election to see the Governor and ask him 
what he proposed to do. 

" 'Tell Cornell,' said Conkling, 'that if I were in his place, and 
he in mine, I would help him.' 

"So I posted off to Albany to see the Governor. I had little faith 
in the outcome of my mission. The Governor's face was as cold and 
impassive as ever when I called and broached my message. 

" 'I can't do anything,' he said. 

"I confess I got angry when I heard this. I didn't care whether 
I was talking to the Governor of the State or not. I only saw the man 
that Conkling made coldly declining to help him in his hour of need. 

REFRESHING HIS MEMORY. 

"Governor," I said, "do you remember when you and Jake Pat- 
terson came to me in 1879, and asked me to see Conkling on your be- 
half? You wanted to be Governor, and you wanted the Senator to 
come to the convention and nominate you. You wanted him to get 
Gen. Arthur out of the way as a candidate, and you asked me to see 
him on your behalf. I did it. Conkling came to the convention, ad- 
vised Arthur to withdraw, and nominated you for Governor and me for 
Attorney-General. For either of us to refuse to help him now is the 
blackest ingratitude." 

" 'But he has finished his own career,' " replied Cornell. 

"Governor," I said, "do you remember the word Senator Conk- 
ling sent to Gen. Sharpe, and Gen. Arthur, and you, and me, and all his 



292 HAMILTON WARD. 

friends, asking them whether he had better be a candidate for re-elec- 
tion after his resignation? Do you recall the word you sent back? It 
was this: 'Senator Conkling must be a candidate and must be re- 
elected by all means!' Now you i-efuse to help his candidacy when you 
advised it." 

NEVER TOO LATE TO HELP A FRIEND. 

" 'It is too late for me to do anything,' " said the Governor. 

"It is never too late to help a friend," I replied. "You should do 
everything in your power, individually and officially, that you can do 
legitimately to help Conkling." 

"He made an evasive reply, and I left him. We never spoke 
afterward. Conkling would hardly believe it when I told him Cornell's 
answer." 

The strng-gle for re-nomination had already begun. 
The term of the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor was 
three years; the other State officers were elected for two 
years. The old fight between the half breeds and stalwarts 
was on, and as Mr. Ward had been conspicuous for his fidel- 
ity to Conkling. he v\^as an especial object of attack. 

The New York Truth of August 15th, urged Senator 
Conkling to take an active part in the convention, especially 
on account of Mr. Ward, of whom the editor said: 

As regards the ticket it must be Stalwart to the backbone. At- 
torney-General Ward must be renominated, not only because he was 
Conkling's open and earnest friend throughout the canvass at Albany, 
but in recognition of his honest course in dealing with derelict corpor- 
ations. 

The Anti-Monopoly Association, then strong through- 
out the State, were enthusiastic in Mr. Ward's behalf, but 
their support probably repelled more than it attracted. 

His record was circulated in their literature, and such 
resolutions as the following were passed : 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL WARD. 

Action of the Thirteenth Assembly District Anti-Monopoly Asssociation. 
The following resolutions were adopted last night at a meeeting 
of the Thirteenth Assembly District Anti-Monopoly Asssociation: 



EFFORT FOR A RENOMINATION. 293 

Whereas, The influence of railroad corporations has in the past 
been so potent in the Attorney-General's office of this State that laws 
defining the obligations and duties of said corporations have been prac- 
tically a dead letter; and 

Whereas, The present Attorney-General, Hon. Hamilton Ward, 
has manifested a desire to enforce the law and protect the public in-- 
terest; 

Resolved, That it is refreshing to see one public officer with cour- 
age and fidelity enough to take such a stand and we heartily indorse 
the following sentiment recently expressed by Mr. Ward: "The power 
of corporations for mischief and oppression, as well as for good, is very 
great. It is only by rigidly enforcing the laws in regard to them and 
not permitting them to usurp any powers not granted, that the people 
can be protected. The more powerful and aggressive the corporation 
is the greater need exists on the part of the courts and the Attorney- 
General for active vigilance." 

Resolved, That this sentiment should and will everywhere meet 
with the earnest approval of all citizens except those who share in the 
fruits of maladministration of public corporations; that wholesale 
robbery of the public by means of construction companies and other 
forms of stock-watering, or by pools and combinations, is just as dis- 
honest as the theft of a loaf of bread, and should be as swiftly and sure- 
ly punished. 

Resolved, That the corruptions of our elections, and legislative 
bribery, which is the direct result of this state of things, seriously 
threatens the stability of our free institutions, and these insidious en- 
croachments upon the public rights and the public welfare must be 
stopped. 

Resolved, That we will steadfastly labor alike to compel the ob- 
servance of the duties and rights of corporations; and to this end we 
solicit the co-operation of all citizens who approve of these principles. 

These were adopted by the 13th Assembly District 
Anti-Monopoly Association, June 23rd, 1881. The conven- 
tion was called in New York. Chauncy Depew, president of 
the New York Central Railroad, was permanent chairman. 

E. M. Johnson and J. W. Vrooman were secretaries. 

The preliminary test of strength over the election of the 
temporary chairman resulted in a victory for the Half 
Breeds, AVarner Miller being elected. 



294 HAMILTON WARD. 

When the nominations were made Secretary of State 
Carr was nominated by acclamation. Comptroher Wads- 
worth dechned a re-nomination and Ira Davenport, of Bath, 
was named on the first ballot. S. M. Norton, of Allegany 
County, then nominated Mr. Ward. Leslie W. Russell, of 
St. Lawrence was also nominated. 

When the time to ballot for Attorney-General camct, 
many of the delegates, as is usual, had left their seats and 
were moving about, or had left the hall, so that the roll call 
was attended with considerable difficulty. After a whis- 
pered consultation with James Husted, who had won imper- 
ishable fame by peeking over Senator Piatt's transom at the 
Delevan House during the Senatorial fight, and whose 
treachery to Conkling and Piatt was most flagrant, Mr. De- 
pew announced that Leslie W. Russell, of St. Lawrence, the 
only other candidate, had received fifteen votes more than 
Mr. Ward, and was therefore nominated. A tally of the 
votes was, of course, kept by many persons unofficially, and 
they generally agreed that the vote was the reverse of that 
announced, and that Mr. Ward was nominated by fifteen. 
Outside of New York and Brooklyn, a tally showed Ward 
155, Russell 207. and investigation of the New York vote de- 
veloped that 70 had voted for Mr. Ward and 9 for Mr. Rus- 
sell, and that Mr. Ward had received at least 20 votes in 
Kings County, thus nominating him. 

Several persons in the audience who kept the tally 
themselves wrote to Mr. Ward to this effect, and a Supreme 
Court stenographer, who was reporting the convention for 
one of the newspapers, and who took each vote as it was an- 
nounced, affirmed it. Nothing, however, was done in the 
matter. Mr. Ward took his defeat with the best grace he 
could muster, and refrained from publicly discussing the sub- 
ject on account of the effect it might have on the election of 
the ticket. 

In 1898 Mr. Ward's elder son accompanied him to the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City, for many years the 
headquarters of the New York State Republicans. Many 
bedrooms in the hotel are adorned with pictures, which give 



EFFORT FOR A RENOMINATION. 295 

the rooms individuality. The bell-boy took them to one of 
the bedrooms on the ground floor on the 23rd Street side, 
and when Mr. Ward looked about an expression of deep pain 
crossed his face. He called the bell-boy back and directed 
him to secure another room, then turning to his son he told 
him that that was the room in which he had waited for the 
news from the convention, within which he had heard the 
report of his defeat, and had listened to the story of the 
fraud, and the indignant and excited protests of his friends, 
and there finally he had been left alone to think it out, to 
think of his power in State politics gone, of his honest efiforts 
honestly to administer his olifice brought to naught ; to think 
of the struggle which was before him to save his good name 
from the wreck, and from which he emerged in the morning 
strong in the purpose to put party honor above private grief. 
Many expressions of regret over Mr. Ward's defeat were 
heard. 

After the convention the following is taken: 
From the address of the State Committee of the Anti- 
Monopoly party of the State of New York issued at Utica 
Oct. 1 2th, 1 88 1. In speaking of Mr. Ward, after referring 
to the fact that he was counted out in the Republican State 
Convention of 1881, and of his not being re-nominated for 
Attorney-General, it proceeds to say: "Hamilton Ward, 
the present Attorney-General, who was a candidate for re- 
election, was not re-nominated, the reason for this action 
may be indicated by the following editorial from the New 
York Truth of October 5th : 

"AGAINST HIM." 

"The corporations have united in the resolve to destroy Attorney- 
General Ward in the convention to-day." 

"The Albany Bridge Co. is against him because he compelled it to 
lower the exorbitant tolls exacted from the people." 

"The Western Union Telegraph Co. is against him because he 
forced that powerful corporation to pay taxes on its wires and poles as 
real estate." 

"The railroads are all against him because he decided that it 
is within the power of the Legislature to regulate the rate of their 
charges." 



296 HAMILTON WARD. 

"The elevated railroad people are against him because he held 
that the five-cent fare bill was not in conflict with the constitution." 

"The Manhattan Railv/ay Company and the Loan & Improve- 
ment Co. are against him because of his known intentions to bring 
their organizers to the criminal bar and because he has already tied 
their hands by the order of Justice Westbrook." 

"The corporation furnishing stone to the new capitol is against 
him because he interferred with its unconscionable contract thereby 
effecting a saving of over $150,000 a year to the State." 

"The Canal Board ring of lawyers is against him because he em- 
ployed a lawyer to represent the Board at a moderate salary, thus sav- 
ing over $30,000 of the people's money." 

"The members of the land grabbing ring are against him be- 
cause he pronounced the policy of selling the State's lands at private 
sales illegal." 

"Will the people of the State — its farmers, merchants, mechanics 
and working men — permit Attorney-General Ward to be sacrificed be- 
cause he has been true to them by making war upon their deadliest 
foes, the great corporations." 

"We hope not." 

The address then adds: "Unfortunately the people 
had but little to say in this convention, their representatives 
were controlled by the representatives of the corporations, 
whose party fealty is always secondary to that of the organ- 
izations which pay their election expenses, and who, in all 
parties to which they attach themselves, they primarily rep- 
resent. 

These influences defeated him in the Republican Con- 
vention, but the people of New York will long remember 
him as the Attorney-General who exerted the powers of his 
office in the interest of public economy and justice." 

And the Albany Morning Express of December 8th 
said this of Mr. Ward : 

THE RECORD OF A FAITHFUL OFFICIAL. 

The Republican State Convention held in the city of New York 
on the 5th day of October last, failed to renominate Attorney-General 
Hamilton Ward, and thereby, as it seems to us, did injustice to a most 
competent and faithful public servant, and a devoted and useful mem- 



EB^FORT FOR A RENOMINATION. 297 

ber of the Republican party. The causes which led to his defeat in the 
Convention need not be here recapitulated in detail. It is sufficient to 
say that because he had honorably, and as in duty bound, stood by his 
friend, Senator Conkling, in the memorable fight of last spring and 
summer, he was marked by the Senator's opponents for slaughter. 
Neither his splendid record as a public officer, nor the valuable services 
he had rendered as a party man, could save him in a Convention largely 
controlled by those who deserted the party in the national campaign 
of 1872. 

Let it be understood that we intend no reflection upon the action 
of Judge Russell, who carried off the nomination. It was, of course, 
his right to be a candidate, and to use all honorable means to achieve 
success. It was not because the gentlemen who controlled the Con- 
vention especially loved Judge Russell, but because they particularly 
hated Hamilton Ward, that the former was nominated. They dared not 
try to nominate one of their own kind. 

Next to the office of Governor, that of Attorney-General is per- 
haps the most important in the State government. He is a member and 
the legal adviser of the Canal Board, of the Board of Land Commis- 
sioners, of the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, of the State Board of 
Charities, and of the New Capital Commission. He is also the attorney 
for the people in cases before the Board of Audit, and the authorized 
and recognized legal adviser of all State officers. In important suits 
in which the people of the State are directly interested, he is the peo- 
ples' representative. 

Now that Attorney-General Ward is about to go out of office, we 
will not be accused of a desire to flatter him when we remark that we 
believe that no gentleman who has held the position has made a better, 
cleaner or more satisfactory record. Space will not permit us to re- 
count in detail the many important services he has rendered the people 
of the State during the two years of his administration of the affairs of 
the office, but it is sufficient to say that no duty has been shirked or 
neglected, no proceeding brought or advice given without a careful 
studyin?? up of the mattter, accompanied by such a presentation thereof 
as has almost invariably carried conviction. In the courts, Attorney- 
General Ward has been quite uniformly successful. In that respect his 
record will compare most favorably with that of any of his predecess- 
ors. 

Mr. Ward has been most ably assisted by his two deputies. 
Judge Ruggles and Mr. Everett, as, indeed, he has been by all the gen- 
tlemen connected with his department. He will resume the practice 
of his profession with the assurance that he leaves an official record 



298 HAMILTON WARD. 

without stain, and that he will always be held in especially high regard 
by those with whom he was officially and professionally associated. 
We shall be greatly mistaken if the people do not, some day, desire to 
avail themselves of the services of so competent and faithful a public 
servant. 

At the election which followed the Republicans elected 
their candidates for Secretary of State, Comptroller, Attor- 
ney-General and State Engineer and Surveyor. Husted 
was defeated by Robert A. Maxwell, of Batavia, and peek- 
ing over transoms has not since that time been regarded as 
a safe means of political advancement. 

it was in this year that President Garfield was assassin- 
ated. Guiteau shot him at the Washington Railroad Sta- 
tion about nine thirty A. M. July 2nd. The night before 
Conkling, Vice-President Arthur and Mr. Ward had left 
Albany on the night boat for New York, and arrived in that 
city after the news of the shooting had been received. Mr. 
Ward was the first one to receive the information, which, 
like all tales of calamity, was magnified so that the story 
told was that Garfield had only a few hours to live. Mr. 
Ward instantly communicated with Conkling, who said that 
Arthur must be told at once, and that he would tell him. 
The Vice-President was still in his state-room, and there they 
told him of the shooting and imminent death of the Presi- 
dent. A great crowd was gathered at the dock and sullenly 
awaited them. The quarrel between the President and the 
New York Stalwarts at this time was so bitter that many be- 
lieved that Guiteau had been influenced by it, and there was 
an undercurrent of wrath among the people. Those waiting 
at the boat landing showed some trace of this, and so Mr. 
Ward hurried ashore and procured a carriage in which 
Arthur entered without any manifestation from the crowd 
and was taken to his quarters. 

The Manhattan litigation heretofore referred to was an 
action brought against the Manhattan Railway Company by 
the people of the State of New York, by Hamilton Ward, 
Attorney-General, the summons being dated May i8th, 1881. 
The complaint alleged that the Elevated Railroad Commis- 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 299 

sioncrs had in 1875 '^^^^^^ ^§7^ recommended and allowed two 
routes for elevated railroads in New York City, one of which 
was developed and used by the Metropolitan Railroad Com- 
pany, and the other by the New York Elevated Railroad 
Company. The Commissioners also authorized competing 
routes, which were to be along the same streets as those 
occupied by the first named companies, and they proceeded 
to incorporate the Manhattan Railroad Compan}-^ to use 
said routes. In 1879 the Manhattan Railroad Company 
absorbed the other two companies, never having of itself 
constructed a mile of railroad or issued any substantial 
amount of stock. 

The situation is best described by a statement found 
among Mr. Ward's papers, and in his own handwriting : 

My attention was first called to the condition of the Manhattan 
Railway Company ,which operated all the elevated railroads of the 
city of New York, by the letter of Robert M. Galway, the President of 
the Manhattan, addressed "To the Mayor, Comptroller and Corporation 
Counsel of the city of New York," dated April 25th, 1881. This letter 
made an exhibit of the financial condition of the Company and estab- 
lished that the Company from its taking control of the elevated roads 
had been doing a loosing business and was in arrrears of unpaid taxes 
for the years 1879 and 1880 of $960,000, and prayed to be relieved from 
those taxes and asked the co-operation of the New York officials in get- 
ting an act passed by the Legislature to that end. The letter con- 
fessed that unless such relief was granted the Company would be 
forced into bankruptcy. Indeed, the letter plainly showed that the 
Company was bankrupt already. Attention was called to this matter 
in the New York papers, and as this confessedly insolvent corporation 
had control of such vast interests and property affecting the public, it 
became the immediate duty of the Attorney-General to give it attention. 
It was not to be expected that any stockholders of the insolvent cor- 
poration would apply to the Attorney-General to take a proceeding that 
would wipe out the corporation, and thus destroy his stock, nor would 
that officer have been justified in waiting until he was moved upon in 
this way, but the matter was thrust upon his attention in so public a 
manner that he was obliged to take notice of it. I went to New York 
in the forepart of May, 1881, and stopped at the Windsor Hotel, and im- 
mediately communicated with Mr. Whitney, the Corporation Counsel of 
the City of New York, one of the officers to whom this communication 



300 HAMILTON WARD. 

was addressed. I called his attention to the letter of Mr. Galway, and 
the condition of the Manhattan, and suggested that I felt it my duty to 
take some action in the premises, and asked him for such information 
as he might have on the subject. He said that as the Corporation 
Counsel, who was chiefly interested in the collection of the city taxes, 
and as a citizen, he would give me any information he might possess 
that would aid me in my inquiry. I then asked him to assist as coun- 
sel for the people, and assist in preparing such papers and commencing 
such action as we should conclude was necessary. He said his engage- 
ments would not permit that, but he would refer me to Mr. Burton C. 
Harrison, who was an able and industrious lawyer in New York, and 
was thoroughly familiar with the organization and history of the rapid 
transit corporation. Mr. Harrison was sent for and he consented to as- 
sist, and on consultation we concluded that an action should be brought 
in the name of the people to dissolve the Manhattan Corporation in the 
County of New York. The complaint did not profess to state separate 
causes of action. A history of the incorporation and its proceedings 
since, and the present condition was given, coupled with the allega- 
tion that it had been insolvent for more than a year. That it had ex- 
ercised powers not conferred upon it by law; that it had forfeited its 
powers and franchises by not exercising its corporate powers, and that 
the leases of the New York and Metropolitan Companies of their two 
roads to the Manhattan was in pursuance of an unlawful and fraudu- 
lent scheme entered into by the lessor and lessee companies, and it 
was substantially charged that the leases were invalid and by which 
the lessor companies "should cease to exercise their respective pow- 
ers, right and franchises, and should respectively suspend their or- 
dinary and lawful business for a period of ninety-nine years, and dur- 
ing the same time should not perform their corporate duties and ob- 
ligations to the public, but that their said rights and franchises should 
be exercised by the said Manhattan Company." Copies of the leases 
were annexed to the complaint, judgment was demanded for a dissolu- 
tion of the corporation, and the appointment of a receiver, and that 
also a receiver be appointed during the pendency of the action. The 
complaint was verified by Mr. Harrison on the 18th day of May, 1881, 
and upon the summ.ons and complaint and several affidavits, among 
which was that of Mr. Harrison setting forth certain facts and conclu- 
sions upon which the complaint was based. Judge Donohue, of the then 
New York Supreme Court, on that day made an order, returnable on 
May 27th, at Chambers, Special Term of the Supreme Court, for the de- 
fendant to show cause why a receiver should not be appointed; the 
papers were served on the defendant at once, and I think on the same 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 301 

day. The evening of the day on which it became public that the ac- 
tion had been commenced, the reporters of several New York papers 
called at my hotel to interview me on the subject of the action. The 
matter was of such public importance that I could not and did not re- 
fuse to give them a history of the proceedings so far, and the grounds 
of action. I, of course, claimed that the case was a good one, and 
urged all the points that had occurred to me, but I expressly said in 
the conclusion of my statement to the reporters as follows: 
Here follows stars in statement. 

It will be seen that the New York and Metropolitan Companies 
were not made parties to the action. It was a question which gave me 
some concern whether they ought not to be made parties as the Man- 
hattan had possesion of their property, and as the validity of the leases 
was atttacked. It was charged that those leases were the result of an 
illegal and fraudulent scheme between the three companies. But I did 
not desire to wipe out those corporations, and thus utterly to destroy 
the rapid transit system of New York; yet I felt that it was very ques- 
tionable whether they had a legal existence, and had great doubts 
whether they had not exceeded their powers by joining in the leases 
and forfeited their franchises by not discharging their corporate duties 
for two years. These doubts I think I expressed. At all events I 
concluded to put the question as to validity of the leases in the case 
against the Manhattan, and charge unlawful combination and scheme. 
The lessor company took alarm. They regarded the success of the 
actions as against the Mahattan upon any other ground than insolv- 
ency as a blow at the existence of the other two corporations, should 
the leases be declared invalid for want of power to execute and re- 
ceive, then the lessor companies had exceeded their powers in giving 
them, and then they would also be liable to the charge of having sus- 
pended their ordinary powers and duties for more than a year, if the 
issue of the 13 millions of stock by the Manhattan was declared illegal 
then the other two companies were equally culpable in receiving each 
one-half of the stock and putting it on the public. It was thus seen 
at a glance that if the Manhattan was dissolved for any of the causes 
which might dissolve the other corporation, it might result in the de- 
struction of the rapid transit system altogether and the loss of the 
many millions of stock held in all those companies. Consequently every 
person interested in any of these companies had an interest in oppos- 
ing the action. The public got excited; the newspapers took up the 
subject. I was roundly abused by some and applauded by others. On 
the 27th day of May the motion was postponed until June 3rd to ac- 
commodate counsel for the defendant. On June 3rd, when I arrived to 



302 HAMILTON WARD. 

make the motion in the Supreme Court, in New York, before Judgte 
Donohue, I was surprised by the service of a stay of proceedings from 
Judge Brady. A momentary examination of the order satisfied me that 
it was void, and I had no doubt but it had been hurriedly granted by 
the Judge under a misapprehension of the facts. I proposed to go on 
with the motion, notwithstanding the order. The Court refused to allow 
me to do this, and I left the Court room. I regarded the whole per- 
formance as a trick of counsel, and publicly said, in substance, that if 
such tricks were put upon me in the New York District I would find a 
district where they would not be practiced. The motion was thus 
suspended. The stay was on June 6th, vacated by the Judge who made 
it, but another question had been presented by the defendant's counsel. 
On the 24th day of May the defendant's attorneys, Field, Bacon and 
others, obtained an order from Judge Donohue on the plaintiff to show 
cause why the complaint should not be made more definite and cer- 
tain, &c., returnable the 26th, and asked for an order staying plaintiff's 
proceedings in the meantime. The Court refused the stay, but granted 
the order to show cause. I understood that upon the argument of this 
motion it was insisted by defendant's counsel, among other things, that 
the Court should not appoint a temporary receiver until the questions 
as to the complaint were settled. That under some of the causes of 
action set forth the plaintiff was not entitled to a receiver until final 
judgment, and under the cause of insolvency for more than a year, the 
Court might appoint such temporary receiver. That there was im- 
proper joinder of causes of action, for, among other reasons, some of the 
causes of action must be tried by the Court, and others by the jury. 
At all events up to the discontinuance of the action, as hereinafter 
stated, these grave questions had not been decided by Judge Donohue 
as far as I could learn. (A page here. No. 5, is missing.) (Page No. 6 
continues) : 

The status of the case on June 2nd was that, first, the motion for 
a receiver was in a state of suspended animation, and while not dead, 
could only be brought on by a new notice or order to show cause. In 
the meantime Judge Donohue had ceased to hold Special Term at 
Chambers, and Judge Lawrence was on the bench. I must, for my 
absolute justification, say here that in addition to my embarrassment 
as to the character of the complaint and the motion pending to correct 
it, I was also embarrasssed by the fact that I understood that Judge 
Lawrence felt a delicacy to hear a motion that under all the circum- 
stances should have been heard by Judge Donohue, and hesitated to 
hear the motion. This was the condition of things when in a few days 
Colonel McCook, of New York, of the firm of Alexander & Green, ap- 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 303 

plied to the Attorney-General on behalf of certain stockholders of the 
Manhattan Company, to hear an application to discontinue the action. 
He says in his communication, in substance, that he understood I con- 
templated doing so. I heard the application in New York. It was 
claimed on that application I was notified that certain persons were 
ready to take hold of the Manhattan and change the directory and 
make it solvent. I think there was a suggestion to that effect by some 
of the gentlemen present, but I could not act upon that. The names of 
the persons who were to make this transformation were not given, so 
I could judge of their responsibility or the probability of their carrying 
out what was proposed, how the old directory was to be ousted and the 
reformers got in their places these gentlemen did not inform me. 
When this was to be done I was not advised. I regarded the matter 
as a suggestion merely by way of argument in favor of a discontinu- 
ance, but of too uncertain a character to be depended upon. Had the 
company then become indisputably solvent, and had the taxes been 
provided for, and the old onerous and oppressive leases been annulled, 
and the company put on a healthy and paying basis, as later on it was 
claimed it had been done, then there would have been something tang- 
ible to consider, but as it was I could not act upon a bare suggestion. 
I was then considering the propriety of changing the action from the 
first to the third district, but had not determined, so I heard the ap- 
plication, and refused it. In my reply to the stockholders, under date 
of June 17th, "I reiterated the grounds of action set forth in the com- 
plaint, and declined to discontinue, but I say at the conclusion, "the 
action must proceed where it can be most speedily disposed of, and I 
hope the defendants will aid me in reaching a trial at the earliest mo- 
ment possible * * * without further dilatory proceedings." On 
consultation with Mr. Harrison and the First Deputy Attorney-General, 
Mr. Ruggles, I came to the conclusion that there were so many em- 
barrassments attending the action in the first district that I would 
commence an action in the third district, and fix the place of trial in 
Albany County, the county in which the Attorney-General's oflBce was 
located, and base the action upon the ground of insolvency alone. The 
statute provides that a corporation may be dissolved when it has been 
insolvent for more than one year. The affairs of the Manhattan had 
been growing steadily worse, in addition to not paying their taxes, they 
had failed to pay the installment due on their leases, due July 1st, and 
no one could longer dispute the hopeless insolvency of the company. 
It was perfectly safe to proceed on this ground alone. This course was 
recommended by several considerations. First, there was no doubt 
that upon the simple ground of insolvency, unmixed with other ques- 



304 HAMILTON WARD. 

tions, the Court could appoint a receiver at once, pendente-lite. 2nd, 
If the receiver was appointed simply on this ground, it would not neces- 
sarily argue the destruction of the rapid transit system. 3rd, the case 
would be more removed from the atmosphere and struggles of the 
stock market and newspaper contest. 4th, the case would not be em- 
barrassed by dilatory motions, orders, &c., such as had been and would 
be interposed in New York on the original causes of action. 5th, as 
the taxes were still unpaid and as the debts were accumulating as de- 
fault in the installments had occurred and a responsible management 
was needed at once, the only safe course for all concerned was for the 
Court to take immediate possession of the road and manage it through 
its officers, to preserve the property and the income that was daily 
accumulating therefrom. These considerations were controlling. On 
the evening of July 1st I started from Albany to New York on the Hud- 
son River boat. The boat was belated by a fog, and late in the morn- 
ing of Saturday, the 2nd of July, we landed in New York, and received 
the dreadful intelligence of the shoooting of the President. The Vice- 
President was on the boat. I repaired immediately to the office of Mr. 
Harrison, when I found him prepared to go into the country and un- 
well. I asked him to assist me in preparing a new complaint and 
papers for the appointment of a receiver in the second action. He said 
he could not on account of his health, and for other reasons. I then 
asked him to make substantially the same affidavit that he had in the 
first action, which he consented to do. He had on hand one of the old 
printed affidavits which he verified anew and delivered to me. Judge 
Westbrook held Special Term at Kingston, in the Third District, being 
Saturday, his Special Term, according to my best recollection, was 
the first and most accessible one in the district. I asked Harrison 
that if I got someone else to draw the complaint and other papers in 
the new action that he would go the first of next week to Kingston 
and apply for the order to show cause and attend to the service of the 
papers. He said he could not be present on the motion. This was 
Saturday, about noon. I felt obliged to leave that evening for my 
home in Belmont. I knew the firm of Lawrence & Wohner in the 
Equitable Building, the same building where I then was. Mr. Wohner 
had charge, under my predecessor, Mr. Schoonmaker, of an action in 

the nature of a (illegilble) which extended into my 

term, I had seen him in connection with that case, and he had intro- 
duced me to his partner, Mr. Lawrence. I knew of Lawrence also as 
having charge of an action against the Manhattan, and to my best 
recollection he, before then, had applied to me to commence an action 
against the directors of the Manhattan, so I regarded him as not in the 
Manhattan interest. He had also particularly examined the financial 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 305 

condition of the Manhattan, and as I was anxious to find a person who 
could, from his knowledge, and would verify a complaint, containing 
the positive allegation that the defendant was and had been insolvent 
for a year. 

I went with the consent and approval of Mr. Harrison, after ob- 
taining his aflBdavit, to Lawrence & Wohner's office, and finding Mr. 
Lawrence stated my predicament and asked him if he had suflacieut 
knowledge of the affairs of the Manhattan Company that he could con- 
scientiously verify a complaint charging that the defendant had been 
insolvent for more than a year? He said he could. I then told him 
if he would have a complaint drawn in the action of the People vs. 
The Manhattan Railroad Company charging insolvency for a year or 
more, and have the papers prepared to obtain an order to show cause 
why a receiver should not be appointed in the action, and go to King- 
ston the first of the next week and get the order I would compensate 
him therefor. He objected to going to Kingston on account of other 
engagements, but finally, at my earnest solicitation, consented to go. 
The summons and complaint and motion papers were prepared in my 
presence, I assisting Lawrence and Wohner, and using their office 
force to accomplish it. The papers were prepared and Mr. Lawrence 
took them; got the order to show cause, sent the papers, and there his 
entire connection with the case ended. He was employed in the 
emergency above set forth for the special work he did and no other 
purpose. I did at that time consult with him about the new action, 
and I did, afterwards to my best recollection, receive from him a sup 
plementary affidavit in support of the order to show cause, which I 
had requested him to make, but which was served later on defendant 
before the motion was made, but I did not know or understand that he 
was the attorney for W. E. O'Connnor or Jay Gould, or that either of 
those gentlem.en had any interest at that time in the Manhattan or its 
stock. 

Mr. Lawrence afterwards, on the motion of the New York Ele- 
vated to get their property, acted as counsel for them, but his services 
for the people was special and had ended. Mr. Lawrence rendered me 
a bill for these services of $2,500.00. I rejected the bill as too large, 
and recommended the Court to allow only thereon $500.00, which the 
Court, Judge Westbrook, did. This $500 was paid by the receivers 
out of the Manhattan property, and did not come out of the people. 
The two chief allegations against me to show collusion with Gould & 
Company in this elevated railroad business are: 1st. That I im- 
properly discontinued the first suit, and commenced the second action, 



^"•^ HAxMILTON WARD. 

&c. 2nd. That in the second action I employed Jay Gould's brokers 
lawyer. 

It has been seen how groundless are these charges. Before pre- 
paring the complaint in the second action I served on the defendant's 
attorney an amended complaint in the first action, which omitted en- 
tirely the cause of dissolution for insolvency which was drawn, with 
o hers m the original complaint. My idea then being, on hasty consider- 
ation, that I could eliminate the insolvency clause from the first com- 
plaint, and start a new action on that in the third district, and thence 
forward go on with two actions, one in the first district for all the causes 
except insolvency, and the other in the third district for insolvency 
alone. And I could move in the second action for a receiver without 
absolutely discontinuing the first. But when in the followin- week 
as I was preparing for the motion, I came to consider the matter more 
maturely and in consultation with Mr. Ruggles, I came to the con- 
clusion that the continuation of the first suit might seriously em-i 
barrass, if not defeat, my motion in the third district, because, first 
there was still really a motion pending in the first district for the ap- 
pointment of a receiver on the old complaint and affidavits. Second. 
The motion to correct the old complaint was not yet decided, and it 
was very doubtful whether amending the complaint in this undeterm- 
ined and peculiar condition of affairs would change the status of the 
old action, and whether the pendency of the first motion for a receiver 
under all the circumstances would not be a bar to the second motion 
at least form a sufficient reason for its denial. And even should the 
order be granted over these objections whether it would not form a 
sufficient reason for appeal, and stay from the order granting it and 
thus create the same difficulties and delays encountered in the' first 
action. I came to the conclusion that the only safe course to pursue 
was to discontinue the first action altogether, get the receiver ap- 
pointed in the second action, and the property thus protected it could 
be a matter to be considered thereafter whether by amending the com- 
plaint m the second action, after the receiver was appointed, by in- 
cluding the other causes of action, or by bringing a new and separate 
action, therefore it was best to litigate the question raised by them 
One thing is certain, these causes of action, if they were ever valid" 
are still valid. They are in no manner disposed of by any litigation - 

that has occurred, or by any action of mine. The matter has been re- .m 
cently pressed upon the attention of the present Attorney-General 1 
He was asked to bring an action against the Manhattan for all or* « 
some of the reasons stated in my first complaint, except that of in- '■ 

solvency. He declined, and I think wisely, because the whole subject 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 307 

was left to his discretion. As I before said, had those causes of action 
been pushed to their logical conclusion, they would have wrecked all 
the elevated railroad corporations of New York and destroyed the 
rapid transit system. This would be a great public injury and no At- 
torney-General could succeed in such a result, or if he did, weather the 
storm he would thus create. If any inference can be drawn from the 
opinion by the Attorney-General that the State is estopped by the acts 
of its officers from now instituting on those grounds an action, I will 
say that no act of mine can be regarded as such estoppel, for the rea- 
son that there was nothing determined in the second action but that 
the defendants that were insolvent had become solvent on the trial of 
the case. I objected to any finding of the Court that the leases of 
May, 1879, were valid, or even that the second leases, those of the fall 
of 1881, were valid. I expressly said that I was not willing that any 
other question should be settled in that case than the single one of in- 
solvency. And the Attorney-General, should he choose to-day to bring 
an action to dissovle the Manhattan Company, for the reason that it 
had exceeded its corporate powers — had failed to exercise its powers — 
had unlawfully issued watered stock — had done or left undone any of 
the things enumerated in the first complaint, which rendered it liable 
to a forfeiture of its franchises except the single one of insolvency — 
he could do so and have the question determined without any embar- 
rassment from any oflacial action of mine, so that the rights of the 
people have in no manner been sacrificed by my omitting in the sec- 
ond action any of the grounds contained in the first. The motion for 
a receiver in the second action was not opposed; all agreed a receiver 
must be appointed, and on the 13th of July, 1881, when the order to 
show cause was returnable, at Kingston, the companies unitedly 
recommended Judge .Tohn F. Dillon, and other gentlemen, among them 
was Mr. Hopkins. I desired to know whether Mr. Dillon was inter- 
ested in any of these roads, and whether any reason existed why he 
should not be appointed. I asked the Judge to take an adjournment 
to New York to ascertain about the personelle of the receiver, and to 
accommodate the counsel, he consented, and on the 14th and 15th I 
was in New York, and because I took time to investigate the New York 
Times criticized my action and insisted that I should have consented 
to Judge Dillon's appointment at once. While I had no objections to 
Dillon, he was not a practical railroad man, and I recommended Mr. 
Hopkins, the vice-president of the Wabash Railroad, to be associated 
with him. Mr. Hopkins was a practical railroad man and every way 
fitted for the place. He was highly recommended. 

Neither Jay Gould nor his broker, Mr. Connor, at this time, had 
any connection with the Manhattan, or owned any of its stock. Any 



308 HAMILTON WARD. 

supposed relations that these receivers had to Gould was therefore no 
objection. The Times, Herald and New York Evening Post, in strong 
articles, approved of the appointment of these receivers, and spoke of 
their high character and qualifications for the place. 

In January Mr. Ward had summoned the directors of 
the Manhattan before him to pass upon the propriety of 
some act of theirs, and the New York Times had at this time 
insinuated that the move was made to influence the stock 
markets. From this time on the Times pursued Mr. Ward 
with unceasing and mahgnant vituperation. It will be re- 
membered that this same paper attacked him in connection 
with the Dennison-Belden case the year before; its owner 
and director was an Englishman named Jones, who took 
much interest in Wall Street. The Evening Mail and Star 
also bitterly attacked Mr. Ward. 

They contended that his actions were influenced by im- 
proper motives; that he was friendly to the stockbrokers 
who had sold Manhattan short, that the road was really 
solvent and that knavery and ignorance combined to direct 
the application for a receivership. 

For days the leading editorials of the New York press 
were on this subject, and no weapon of satire, ridicule or 
abuse was left untried. Burton N. Harrison, Samuel Tilden 
paid others were charged with instigating his action, and the 
loud shrieks of defeated stock jobbers, backed by a venal 
press filled the air and swept along with them many well 
meaning persons and honest newspapers, who were con- 
fused by the clamor. However, the Herald, the Tribune and 
the Sun mildly approved of Mr. Ward's course, although 
they did not discuss the motive that lay behind the attack 
on him. Not so Mr. Ward's old time friend, the New York 
Truth ; in a bold editorial of June 5 it declared that Cyrus 
W. Field and others were behind the attack on the Attorney- 
General, because they feared the result of his investigations. 

In addition to the proceedings set out in Mr. Ward's 
statement, an apphcation was made to Judge Donohue to 
stay all proceedings in the action, which was denied. 

From the order entered upon this motion an appeal was 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 309 

taken to the General Term, vvliich also refused to grant the 
stay desired, but intimated that no further action should be 
taken until a certain motion pending before Judge Donohue 
to make the complaint more definite and certain could be de- 
termined. 

On June 14th certain stockholders of the Manhattan Com- 
pany appeared before the Attorney-General in New York and 
requested him to discontinue his action, and in answer to this 
application Mr. Ward prepared a statement showing the 
absolute insolvency of the company, and its situation in con- 
nection with the other elevated railroad companies which 
was mailed to each stockholder. 

This statement contains the following significant para- 
graph : ''The power of corporations for mischief and op- 
pression, as well as for good, is very great. It is only by 
rigidly enforcing the laws in regard to them, and not permit- 
ting them to usurp any power not granted, that the people 
can be protected. The more powerful and aggressive the 
corporation the greater need exists on the part of the Courts 
and the Attorney-General for active vigilance." 

This statement was favorably commented upon in some 
quarters, but the violent attacks of the Times still continued. 
Hardly a day went by without several columns of most 
bitter denunciation from that journal. 

Its articles were widely copied and referred to. 
Rival speculators took sides in the litigation, and the 
stock market responded to its phases. 

Later in July a second action was commenced, and this 
time to avoid the embarrassment of a prejudiced judiciary, it 
was brought in the Third District. 

The defendant immediately capitulated, and consented 
to the appointment of receivers, who were Judge John F. 
Dillon, an eminent lawyer, and Mr. A. L. Hopkins, a prac- 
tical railroad official. 

In September an application, was made by the New 
York Elevated Railroad Company to Justice T. R. West- 
brook, who had appointed the receivers, for an order direct- 
ing that its property leased by the Manhattan be restored to 
it. This request was refused by the Justice on the ground 



310 HAMILTON WARD. 

that the petitioner was in part to blame for the defendant's 
condition. 

In the meantime the receivers had conducted the ele- 
vated railroad system, and the plan to defraud the creditors 
of the Manhattan and to obtain relief from taxation having 
failed by reason of the receivership, there was nothing left 
for the managers of the road to do but pay its debts, and re- 
gain its possession, which they doubtless were desirous of 
doing at all times, as it was a valuable and paying property. 
Therefore the three railroad companies on the 22nd of Octo- 
ber made an agreement which renewed the old leases, upon the 
agreement of the Manhattan to discharge all obligations in 
full. 

Thereafter Judge Westbrook wrote Mr. Ward as fol- 
lows : 

Monticello, Oct. 25th, 1881. 

My dear Ward: — Your letter to me was forwarded to me here. 

The petition and order in the Manhattan case to discharge the 
receiver was presented to me this A. M. 

The three companies petition, and show: 1st. That the credit- 
ors are the lessor companies, and New York City for taxes. 2nd. 
Claims for lessor companies are settled. 3rd. That the taxes are re- 
mitted because illegal and that a sum sufficient to pay them in full 
has been deposited in U. S. Trust Company as security. 4th. That 
the rental has been reduced to six per cent, to each company, which 
is equivalent to a reduction of four per cent, on whole capital of lessor 
companies. 5th. That the Manhattan is now abundantly solvent, 
which I know from tables of its earnings submitted to me, it must be 
under reduced rental. 6th. The settlement requires the vacating of 
receivership. 

This result is simply glorious. You have saved the company 
and will have the thanks of hundreds of poor persons. Back of the 
corporation, and back of Wall Street Kings and affairs of Manhattan, 
are innocent stockholders; men, women and children, and they are the 
persons I care for; we have relaxed the grasp of the rich, who un- 
loaded their stock upon the poor — from the throats of the poor. 

I write mainly because I feel so, and I do it unselfishly because 
I have no axe to grind, except that of justice. 
As ever your friend, 

T. R. WESTBROOK. 

I am sorry you are sick." 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 311 

Mr. Ward objected to the discharge of the receivers and 
wired the Justice to this effect, being too ill to appear before 
him, in person, but Westbrook, acting upon his own re- 
sponsibility, discharged them. This hasty and irregular ac- 
tion, although performed with the best intention, was the 
basis of the attempt to impeach him, which will be later dis- 
cussed. 

During the following month the action was tried, and 
the complaint dismissed, as will appear in Mr. Ward's state- 
ment hereinafter set out. 

All the desired results had been accomplished. The 
railroad system had been forced to put aside the scheme of 
insolvency, pay its taxes and remove itself from arena of 
stock speculations. 

The value of the stock had been restored to the stock- 
holders, and the city of New York had been given a com- 
plete and solvent elevated railroad system. 

All parties to the action were satisfied and no appeals 
were taken. However, the controversy did not end here. 
Mr. Ward had been defeated politically and the New York 
Times set out to so characterize his conduct of the litigation 
that his personal reputation would be destroyed. The rea- 
son that a great metropolitan journal should set out to do 
this is not clearly understood, but nevertheless it is not an 
uncommon occurrence, and the litigation has been thus min- 
utely followed that the facts in light of the Times charges 
might be fully understood. It is true that Justice West- 
brook hurried matters and did not much consult Mr. Ward, 
and in a letter of November 8th, Mr. Ward complains of this, 
and says that responsibility must rest with the Judge. 

A further statement in connection with this matter 
found among Mr. Ward's papers, under date of 1882 and in 
his own handwriting, was prepared for publication in the 
Times, but was not so used, and was printed in the New 
York Tribune. After reviewing the earlier proceedings, it 
continues : 

"Time rolled on. I was taken seriously ill from a cold con- 
tracted in attending the President's funeral at Cleveland. I went to 
my room in Albany about the 10th of October, and, with the exception 



312 HAMILTON WARD. 

of riding out on pleasant days occasionally, was kept there for five or 
six weeks. During the time, and while I was very ill, I was asked to 
consent to a proceeding, before Judge Westbrook, to discharge the re- 
ceivers and remit the elevated roads to the control of the Manhattan 
Company, on the ground that the company had become solvent. I tele- 
graphed Judge Westbrook that I was not well enough to give attention 
to the matter, but that he must act on the papers before him in the 
case on his own judgment in the interest of all the people and all con- 
cerned. The Judge, on the application of all the elevated railroads, 
on a petition showing that the Manhattan Company by a most ad- 
vantageous arrangement with the other companies had obtained the 
surrender of the old leases and had become solvent, and had provided 
for the payment of the back taxes, and that the receivers themselves 
joined in the applcation and asked to be discharged, restored the roads 
to the Manhattan Company. 

"In November, while I was still ill, the attorneys of all the ele- 
vated roads and the Judge came to my room in Albany, and a trial 
was had of the case. Proofs were given showing that the old leases 
were abandoned, and that new and more advantageous ones to the de- 
fendant had been given; that the defendant had become solvent, and 
that all the elevated railroad corporations had come to one agreement 
by which the successful management of the elevated roads of New 
York was assured. The company having become solvent no cause of 
action under the new suit remaned for the people. The defendant was 
certain to succeed in the case, and as no reason existed for procras- 
tinating the matter, and as it was proper if it could be consistently' 
done, to end the litigation during my term of office, a judgment was 
entered. 

"There was nothing remarkable in holding a court in my room. 
Several boards of which I was a member, for my accommodation, had 
met in my room. Among them the Canal Board, the Commissioners 
of the Canal Fund and the Capitol Commission. I do not know or care 
who owned or did not own the stock of the Manhattan. 

"Late in the proceedings I saw by the papers that Jay Gould 
had become interested in the road and had gone into the Manhattan 
directory. I also saw it stated that he was interested in aiding other 
railroads. I had no arrangement, express or implied, with him or any- 
one else about the elevated roads. I was never interested a farthing's 
worth in this or any other railroad. It did seem to me desirable that 
the men who had invested their money in the Manhattan stock in good 
faith should, if possible, be protected. The action was not brought to 
depress the stock, but as an inevitable result of the company's condi- 
tion and its failure to pay taxes. I was really glad when the com- 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 313 

pany became solvent and the stock rose from 20 to 56 cents, as those 
unfortunate stockholders seemed to be likely to realize something out 
of their investment. With the gambling whirlpool of Wall Street I had 
no interest or concern. If any one has lost or made in such ventures 
I had nothing to do with or interest in it. 

"It is said that Mr. Gould has got control of the elevated roads 
of New York City. It is evident that under a new management the 
roads may be made to pay; and if Mr. Gould had accomplished this re- 
sult it has not been done by reason of the people's action against the 
Manhattan, but in spite of it, because it was the new arrangement 
which was made by the concurrence of the directories of all the com- 
panies by which the Manhattan was made solvent, and which resulted 
in the defeat of the people's action. 

"I wish to say, in conclusion, that I had no interest, except what 
an Attorney-General should have, in the case, and none of the stock 
or property involved. I did my official duty in the light that was given 
me. If I erred it was an error of judgment. I had no understanding, 
arrangement or interest with any man or set of men in the matter. 

"I left the office of Attorney-General as poor as when I entered 
it, with my law business destroyed by the two years absence, and with 
nothing to give my wife and children but my professional work and my 
name for integrity among men which has never been assailed before, 
I am ready and anxious for any investigation of this matter which can 
be had, and hope that the whole business can be probed to the bot- 
tom." 

Mr. Ward had met political reverses ; his life had been 
full of strife and action, but never before had his integrity 
been attacked ; like most sensitive men, he was at first over- 
whelmed — he tramped the quiet streets of Belmont long into 
the night; he grew old and weary, but his natural buoyancy 
of disposition and courage asserted itself; single-handed and 
poor he took up the fight and the result will be set forth. 

All this time the Times had been building up public 
sentiment. All over the Union the names of Ward and 
Westbrook were bruited about. A public sentiment was 
being formed. The press was demonstrating its power. 
Five columns of the Times of December 30th was devoted to 
the question. 

The old charge made when the litigation was com- 
menced were repeated, although now it was charged that 



314 HAMILTON WARD. 

the Attorney-General was acting in the interest of Gould and 
Field, and not against them. Day after day the attack con- 
tinued. Westbrook and Ward were called tools of the 
"wreckers,"' and while the Albany Law Journal and other 
papers valiently upheld them, and pointed out the motives 
animating the Times' attack, nevertheless they gained cred- 
ence. When the New York Assembly convened in Janu- 
ary, 1882, it was a "reform" Assembly, and one of the most 
reforming of the reformers was Theodore Roosevelt, now 
Vice-President of the United States. He offered the follow- 
ing resolution to the Assembly, which for the time was 
tabled : 

Whereas, Charges have been made from time to time by the 
public press against the late Attorney-General Hamilton Ward and T. 
R. Westbrook, a Justice of the Supreme Court of this State, on account 
of their official conduct in relation to suits brought against the Man- 
hattan Railway, and 

Whereas, These charges have, in the opinion of many persons, 
never been explained nor fairly refuted, and 

Whereas, It is of vital importance that the judiciary of this State 
should be beyond reproach, therefore, 

Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee is hereby empowered 
and directed to investigate the conduct of the late Attorney-General, 
Hamilton Ward, and Justice T. R. Westbrook, in relation to the suits 
against the Manhattan Elevated Railroad, and report at the earliest 
day practicable to the Legislature. [Tabled. 

This was probably well intentioned; Mr. Roosevelt was 
a young man and even then felt himself to be an extremely 
virtuous one. 

This marked the high tide of the attack. 

The Albany Law Journal had pooh-hooded the resolu- 
tion, calling attention to the fact that no appeal had been 
taken by any party from any of the decisions or orders in the 
action, and that as Judge Grover said the critics had adopted 
the alternative policy of "swearing at the Court." 

And even the Mail and Express, whose attacks were of 
the most bitter character in the first place, said editorially 
on January 12: 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 315 

Now we have known Mr. Ward more or less for years, and as he 
is rabidly Stalwarty and considerably inclined to self-assertion and 
bumptiousness we are somewhat prejudiced against him, yet we do 
not believe the charge against him to be true. It is contrary to the 
known and well established character ol! the man. He has again and 
again been called to positions of high pubic trust, in all of which he" 
has demonstrated incorruptible integrity. It will be remembered that 
his acts and integrity was just as furiously assailed on the Belden 
canal suits, yet the Court of Appeals vindicated and sustained him tri- 
umphantly. We doubt not his integrity will eventually be as clearly 
demonstrated in this matter. 

And on a later day pointed out that the Times was in- 
fluenced by defeated stock speculators, who were seeking re- 
venge. 

Mr. Ward communicated with many of his former 
friends and associates in Albany and received a number of 
replies assuring him of continued confidence in his integrity, 
with a proffer of services; such letters were written by State 
Senators John W. Browning, George P. Lord. Amasa J. 
Parker, Jr., and C. S. McArthur, from Assemblyman D. S. 
Potter, A. A. VanArsdale, M. C. Murphy and John Living- 
ston ; also from Lieutenant-Governor Hoskins, Clerk of the 
Assembly E. W. Johnson. Congressman Van Aernam, 
Superintendent of Public Works S. B. Dutcher, Supreme 
Court Justice Charles Daniels and others. On the 20th the 
Times fired its big blast, which was a general review of the 
case from its standpoint. 

This called out a rather pathetic letter from Justice 
Wcstbrook, which is as follows : 

Kingston, N. Y., Jan. 21st, 1882. 

My dear Ward: — Those things which we do with the most 
scrupulous fidelity, are the very ones which often subject us to abuse. 

I am entirely conscious of the care which you took in Manhat- 
tan to be right, and of the labor which I took upon myself, which was 
conscientiously performed. 

I supposed we had, by suing the company, done something for 
which we would be applauded, and not blamed. It turns out otherwise, 
and all we can do Is to console ourselves with the thought we have 



316 HAMILTON WARD. 

acted honestly, according to our best judgment, and in the end, the 
right and truth will prevail. 

Faithfully. 

T. R. WESTBROOK." 

The Times attack continued, and so accustomed were 
people becoming- to hearing the charges re-iterated again 
and again that they gained credence, until it seemed hkely 
that a legislative investigation would take place. The 
Legislature, of course, had no power over or authority to 
investigate an ex-official. That rests with the Grand Jury 
alone. Mr. Ward, however, waived this immunity in a tele- 
gram to the Allegany County Member of Assembly as fol- 
lows : 

"Belmont, March 30th, 1882. 
To Hon. Washington Moses, 

Assembly, Albany, N. Y. 
Thanks for your telegram. If the Assembly is of opinion that it 
has the power to investigate the acts of all the ex-offlcials of the State, 
and thinks it ought to be used by stock jobbers who have been de- 
feated in the courts and before the Attorney-General, to blacken my 
reputation and subject me to the annoyance and expense of a legisla- 
tive investigation, I shall submit, not doubting my triumphant vindica- 
tion; you who have known me so long can judge what course you 
should take, and you can use this telegram as you think proper in your 
judgment. 

HAMILTON WARD." 

On April I2th Roosevelt called up his resolution, and so 
much sentiment had the Times worked up since January that 
it passed by a vote of 98-14 in the Assembly, so fearful had 
the members become of the power of the press. A.mong 
those voting against the absurdity were Parker and Van 
Arsdale. 

The New York Sun of April 13th described the perform- 
ance as follows : 

A JUDGE UP FOR JUDGMENT. 

The Conduct of Judge Westbrook To Be Investigated. 
A Great Majority in the Assembly Yesterday for the Resolution — In 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 317 

the Matter of the Receiverships and the Elevated Railway Suits — 

A Debate in which Nearly All the Speakers were on One 

Side— The Result. 

Albany, April 12. — By an almost unanimous vote the Assembly 
passed to-day Mr. Roosevelt's resolutions directing the Judiciary Com- 
mittee to inquire into the official conduct of Judge Westbrook and ex- 
Attorney-General Ward. The scope of the resolution were broadened 
by an amendment which permits an inquiry into Judge Westbrook's 
connnection with the insurance receiverships, and any other matters 
that the committee may think it worth while to consider. The votes 
to-day showed that Judge Westbrook's friends, who have been trying 
heretofore to shield him from investigation, had become convinced 
that they were acting unwisely. With two or three exceptions they 
voted to-day for an investigation. Even the Tammany Assemblymen 
changed front and, with one exception, voted for the inquiry. With 
this change of front on the part of the opposition, Mr. Roosevelt had 
no difficulty in getting his resolution from the table out of the regular 
order. The vote stood 99 to 14. The fourteen negative votes wera 
cast by Messrs. Ahearn, Alvord, Campbell, Cleary, Cooper, J. J. Cosh 
tello, Harris, Keyes, Moses, Murphy, Parker, Shanley, Sweet and Van 
Arsdale. 

As soon as the vote was announced Old Salt, who has le^l trit; 
fight against Mr. Roosevelt from the first, got the floor again, and tried 
to fight off the investigation. He said that he did not know the gen- 
tlemen against whom the charges were brought, and had nc interest In 
the matter. He opposed the resolutions on the ground that a step off 
this kind should not be taken on newspaper statements. Only two 
papers had been pushing this investigation — the Times and Herald. 
Who and what are they? The Times, under the control and adminis- 
tration of an unnaturalized foreigner in the pay of the British Govern- 
ment, pretending to be in favor, but really against Americans. That 
was the beginning and end of the Times. What was the animus of tha 
Herald? It was simply that they think they can get a wipe at John 
Kelly by this operation. He said the time was coming in the history 
of the State when the corrupt press would be exposed. He did not 
believe there was any necessity for this investigation, and he predicted 
that the gentlemen who had gone after wool would come home shorn. 

Mr. Sprague, of New York, a young Republican of independent 
proclivities, supported Mr. Roosevelt's charges in a carefully prepa.ved 
speech. He asserted that the charges against Judges Barnard. Cai- 
dozo, and McCunn, against whom articles of impeachment had been 
prepared, were less specific than those made against Messrs. West- 



318 HAMILTON WARD. 

brook and Ward. He had himself examined the records in the County 
Clerk's office, in Albany, and was satisfied that there had been a base 
and corrupt conspiracy in the Manhattan matter, and that these men 
were the easy and facile tools of the men engaged in it. He did not 
mean to say that Judge Westbrook had profited pecuniarily by his ac- 
tions in these cases, but he believed him to be amenable to the charge 
of corrupt influence. He then reviewed the varous operations in the 
Manhattan Elevated cases from the first suits to the discharge of the 
receivers. If the orders were made in good faith the receivers should 
have wound up the affairs of the Manhattan Company. Judge West- 
brook appointed a cousin a referee to pass upon the accounts of the 
receivers. There is no evidence that he did the slightest amount of 
work, yet he received a fee of $1,000 from the Manhattan Company. 
The order granted for the winding up of the receiver's affairs fls a 
curiosity in judical literature. He held that the gravity of the charges 
demanded that the Legislature should make an investigation for th© 
purity of the ermine of the judiciary and the good of the public. Ulster 
County was ably represented on this floor, and yet they had not said 
one word in defence of the accused parties; nor, as might have been 
expected, did they come here demanding an investigation. He held 
that the regularity of the proceedings was amply established, that 
there was sufficient grounds to believe that if Judge Westbrook had 
not received pecuniary benefits he had been improperly influenced in 
other ways, and that all the facts and circumstances demanded an in- 
vestigation. :, 

Mr. Brodsky, the young New York Stalwart, spoke particularly 
in defence of ex-Attorney-General Ward, who, he said, was his political 
and personal friend. He had gone, when in New York recently, to see 
if it was in Jay Gould's office, as had been alleged, that the court was 
held. He found the facts to be these: That at the request of the 
lawyers on both sides Judge Westbrook went from Kingston to New 
York, instead of compelling thirteen or fourteen lawyers to go to King- 
ston, and had sat in the office of ex-Judge Dillon, one of the receivers. 
There were so many persons present that the court was adjourned to 
the directors' room of the Western Union Telegraph Company. All 
motions were made after due notice to all parties. No one has made 
complaint against the decisions except a few people who had lost on 
Manhattan stock. When Attorney-General Ward moved to discontinue 
the suit a new agreement had made the company solvent and 
taken the bottom out of his action. He was confined to his room in 
the Delevan House by sickness, and the Judge held court in his room. 
He held that the Judge should not have asked for an investigation 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 319 

aganst charges like these. The Legislature had no power to reach 
Mr. Ward now. He wa* out of office. There was not enouogh In the 
charges to warrant an investigation. 

Mr. Benedict of Ulster said he was a personal and political 
friend of Judge Westbrook and a citizen of the same county. He had 
voted at every stage for the investigation bceasue he believed that 
Judge Westbrook would be vindicated by an inquiry into the Manhat- 
tan suits. The Judge was a very timid man — a moral coward — in such 
an exigency as this, and he regretted that his conduct, in not coming 
forward to demand an investgation, had cast a cloud upon him. There 
might have been gross judicial impropriety in some of his acts, but 
that was all. If he had been used, it had been as thousands of others 
had been used — by friends and relatives. 

Mr. Hickman of Erie wanted an investigation in the Interests of 
a pure judiciary. If there were cowards and ignoramuses and Im- 
beciles on the Supreme bench, as had been said on the floor here, it 
was time something was done about it. 

Mr. Hunt of Jefferson recited the facts that had been alleged and 
not denied, and said that such allegations could not be ignored. He 
wanted a searching investigation. 

Mr. Amasa J. Parker, Jr., of Albany, opposed the resolution. 
As one who had known Judge Westbrook long and intimately, he be- 
lieved in his innocence. He wanted to know why it was that Mr. 
Roosevelt had waited until within six or eight weeks of the adjourn- 
ment of the Legislature before moving in the matter. 

Mr. J. W. Higgins of Niagara did not take much stock In the 
charges. He was not willing to put Judge Westbrook on the gridiron 
of public condemnation on the case presented against him. He be- 
lieved that if there was wrongdoing in the Manhattan suits, Hamilton 
Ward was the sole sinner. 

Mr. Roosevelt offered an amendment to the resolutions, extend- 
ing their scope to all other cases or charges worthy of attention, es- 
pecially in respect to receiverships. 

Major Haggerty said he was profoundly impressed with the idea 
that Judge Westbrook had reached a bad eminence. If not another 
man in this Chamber was in favor of the resolution, he should fee'' 
bound in honor and in conscience to vote for it, after hearing facts 
that had come to his knowledge about Judge Wetsbrook's conduct in 
other cases. 

Gen. Sharpe, who had refused to vote on the motion to take the 
resolution from the table, explained that he desired to appear neither 
as prosecutor nor defender of Judge Westbrook. He thought it would. 



320 HAMILTON WARD. 

have been better if the charges had been formulated and signed by 
citizens, as was done in the cases of Judges Barnard, McCunn, and 
Cardozo. He regarded the investigation as a proper one, and would 
vote for it, but he wanted it understood that he did not appear as a 
public accuser. Judge Westbrook v/as a man v.'hose simple life, fru- 
gality, temperance, and industry were commended by all. As to Judge 
Westbrook's appointment of relatives, he regretted it, but it was no 
unusual thing, where confidential and close relations were necessary. 
State officers frequently appointed their sons or other relations as 
deputies. 

Speaker Patterson called Col. Murphy to the chair toward the 
close of the discussion, and took the floor to oppose an amendment 
offered by Mr. Higgins of Niagara providing for the appointment of a 
select committee of five to investigate the charges. He said that, from 
a personal and intimate acquaintance with Judge Westbrook, he be- 
lieved he had a wealth of character to carry him through any investi- 
gation. He hoped he would not be asked to name a special commmit- 
tee, but that the inquiry would be made by the standing Judiciary Com- 
mittee. 

Mr. Moses of Allegany, the home of Hamilton Ward, read a tele- 
gram from the ex- Attorney-General, which was as follows: 

If the Assembly is of the opinion that they have the power to in-^ 
vestigate the acts of ex-officers of the State, and think it wise to 
blacken my character and subject me to the expense of a legislative in- 
vestigation, they will do so, and I shall have to submit, not doubting 
iny triumphant vindication. 

It was drawing toward 2 o'clock and Mr. Roosevelt, profiting 
by his defeat the other day, determined to force a vote. In his closing 
speech he said, in reply to Mr. Brodsky's assertion that Judge West- 
brook did not sit in Gould's private office; that Jay Gould's name was 
over the door of the room. Mr. Roosevelt said he had the names of 
two witnesses in his pocket to substantiate his charges. 

There was a murmur of disent on all sides, and a growl from Old 
Salt when Mr. Roosevelt moved the previous question and cut off de- 
bate. Two or three members wanted him to give way, but the young 
New Yorker was wary. There was only three minutes to adjourn- 
ment, and unless the roll call was begun Mr. Roosevelt knew that he 
would lose all the ground he had gained. Old Salt and his followers 
had to take the gag. 

Mr. Higgins's amendment for a special committee was lost. 

Mr. Roosevelt's amendment enlarging the scope of the inquiry 
was carrried. 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 321 

Clerk Johnson then called the names on the main resolution. 
The youthful Ahearn of New York was the first to respond. He voted 
"no" in a feeble voice, but when, later on, he saw that he had little 
company, he jumped on to the other side. Old Salt saw that the tide 
had turned and asked consent to explain his vote. He said if Mr. 
Ward's name was eliminated he would vote for the resolution, perhaps, 
but there was no power to investigate an ex-of5cer. He therefore 
voted no. Half a dozen members dodged the vote, and others who had 
opposed the investigation at every step scrambled over to the majority 
when the test came. Mr. Brodsky, who dodged the first vote, faced 
the music at last ,and voted no. Col. Parker, who was the only mem- 
ber of the Judiciary Committee to vote, said that his duty as an Assem- 
blyman was to pass upon this question, and he voted no. Chairman 
Poucher of the Judiciary Committee gave Col. Parker a quiet thrust 
by declining to vote on the ground that it would be indelicate if not 
improper for him to do so. The other members of the committee were 
excused from voting. 

The Judiciary Committee, which will have charge of the investi- 
gation, is composed of eleven members: Poucher of Oswego, Chapin 
of Kings, Morrison of New York, Smith of Broome, Parker of' Albany 
Searle of Steuben, McClelland of New York, Potter of Saratoga Cham- 
berlain of St. Lawrence .Livingston of Putnam, and Armstrong of 
Washington. The first seven are Democrats. Tammny has no repre- 
sentative on the committee. 

On the 2 1 St Mr. Ward's counsel, his former First As- 
sistant Attorney-General, William B. Rug-gles, of Bath, pre- 
sented the following statement to the Judiciary Committee 
above named : 

I appear as the representative of ex-Attorney-General Ward on 
this occcasion and am authorized to say for him that while he has re- 
ceived no summons from the committee to appear before them, the 
comittee have courteously informed him of the meeting in answer to a 
telegram he had sent requesting to know the time and place of the 
committee's first meeting. He is glad of the opportunity thus afforded 
to have all the facts showing his connection with the elevated rail- 
road litigation submitted to the committee and the public, and he is 
ready to enter upon the investigation as soon as he can examine some 
of the papers and records in the suits, which are not accessible at his 
home in Belmont. For this purpose he desires a day or two. He is 



322 HAMILTON WARD. 

perfectly aware that neither in the Assembly alone, nor in both houses 
of the Legislature together, is there any authority or jurisdiction un- 
der the constitution of this State to administer any punishment what- 
ever to a private citizen for offenses allleged to have been committed 
during a past term of office. 

This principle has been settled by abundant authority, judicial 
and legislative. The Assembly of this State has distinctly recognized 
and acted upon it on several occasions, and notably in the case of the 
resolution for the impeachment of Philo C. Fuller, Sanford E. Church 
and others in the year 1853. The principle was also recognized and 
adopted in the investigation of ex-Speaker Callicott in 1863. The judi- 
cial branch of the Government has exclusive jurisdiction to investigate 
by its own methods and punish such alleged offenses, of which fact 
those who inspired the resolution under which this committee is pro- 
ceeding must have been aware, the evident object being for ulterior 
purposes to destroy his reputation among men. Nevertheless, he does 
waive, and has from the beginning been determined to waive, the 
question of jurisdiction, and he invites this committee to fearlessly 
and thoroughly examine not only his action in the elevated railroad 
cases but as far as they can all his official acts as Attorney-General of 
the State of New York, to the end that if he has been guilty of any 
corruption or crimnal misconduct in office he may be held up to the 
just execration and contempt of the people, and meet the consequences 
incurred in the judicial tribunals of the country. But if, on the con- 
trary, these things are not found, he has no doubt that this honorable 
committee will accord to him that justice which he is entitled to. 

The committee decided to conduct their investigation in 
New York City for the convenience of witnesses, and met 
there on April 28th. 

The hearing was held at St. James Hotel. F. L. Stet- 
son and ex-Judge Albertus Perry were the counsel for the 
Committee. Hamilton Harris represented Judge West- 
brook and William B. Ruggles, ex-Deputy Attorney-Gen- 
eral, represented Mr. Ward. Mr. Gallaway was the first wit- 
ness and substantially corroborated the plaintiff's contention 
that the company was insolvent. The City Editor of the 
Times was also questioned, but refused to give the authority 
for the statements which the Times had made attacking 
Judge Westbrook and the Attorney-General. 

The special counsel which Mr. Ward had employed and 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 323 

the attorney for the receiver were sworn, but nothing was 
brought out showing any improper act or motive on the part 
of the Attorney-General or Judge VVestbrook, or any con- 
nection, direct or impHed, between them and any faction on 
the stock market. Officers of the Railroad Company were 
also sworn, who explained the financial arrangements which 
led up to restoring the railroad to a solvent financial condi- 
tion. 

Cyrus W. Field, Russell Sage and others testified that 
they were opposed to bringing the action, and one criticized 
Judge Westbrook for his course in this and other matters. 

The hearings dragged on rather tediously for several 
days, but the attacks on Mr. Ward eased entirely, owing to 
the utter failure of any inculpating --oof, and Justice West- 
brook was alone assailed. 

Finally on the 21st day of May a witness named Ruphus 
F. Andrews, to whom had been traced the statements reflect- 
ing on Justice Westbrook, broke down on the witness stand 
and made a full retraction of his charges. 

At the conclusion of this day's hearing Mr. Ruggles 
said that he would like to go on the stand in behalf of his 
client, inasmuch as he had been Deputy Attorney-General 
under Mr. Ward, and had had personal knowledge of many 
of the transactions already referred to in the evidence. 

Coimsel Perry, for the Committee, then said : 

"I desire to state as one of the counsel of this committee, al- 
though I haven't the slightest objection to my friend, Mr. Ruggles, 
taking the stand, I think it is the opinion of the counsel for the com- 
mittee that nothing has been shown in regard to the conduct of Attor- 
ney-General Ward which calls for any testimony whatever in his ex- 
culpation. It seems to me that the testimony has failed entirely to 
show that he has been guilty of any misconduct or indiscretion in the 
execution of the duties of his office, so far as they have been brought 
to the knowledge of the committee, and I think my associate concurs 
with me in this view." 

Counsellor Stetson was hardly able to go so far. He 
would not say there had been no disclosure of anything that 
might not be considered unusual and improper, 'but he did 



324 HAMILTON WARD. 

not know of anything tending to show that Mr. Ward's con- 
duct had anything back of it. In his opinion the change by 
the Attorney-General from the first to the second suit, in the 
case of the People against the Manhattan Elevated Railroad 
Company was not such a course as commended itself to his 
judgment. 

Mr. Ruggles then took the stand and testified in sub- 
stance as follows : 

"It was he who suggested to the Attorney-General the propriety 
of beginning a suit to dissolve the Manhattan Company. On May 18 
the Attorney-General told him that he had begun the action, and some 
days later the witness saw the complaint and afterward spoke to Mr. 
Ward, saying that he though two mistakes had been made — one in 
laying the venue in New York City and the other in the joining of a 
number of causes of action in a single complaint, some of which 
seemed incongruous and might complicate the suit. The witness told 
Mr. Ward that the allegation of insolvency would be a sufficient 
ground for complaint; also that it was the custom of the office to lay 
the venue of suits by the people in Albany County, where the record 
would always be accessible and convenient. Mr. Ward said he laid 
the suit in New York because all the parties were there, and Mr. 
Ruggles said he had better bring it to Albany. The witness had ad- 
vised or concurred in every step in the case, including the discontinu- 
ance of the first suit, to which later movement the Attorney-General 
expressed disinclination." 

Mr. Stetson said : 

"I wish to say with reference to the testimony of Mr. Ruggles, 
whose word always commands with me the most explicit assent, that 
as Mr. Ruggles has stated that the change in the former action was 
made on his advice and by him, I, of course, can have no ground for 
criticising the change in that action." 

A COMPLETE EXONERATION. 

One branch of the Westbrook-Ward investigation has already 
resulted in an acquittal. 

The action of the special committee of the Assembly completely 
exonerates the Hon. Hamilton Ward from all imputations of miscon- 
duct growing out of the part he took as Attorney-General in the Man- 
hattan Elevated Railway cases. 

There has been absolutely no testimony tending to show either 
impropriety or even indiscretion in anything he did. So clear was this 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 325 

that it was freely conceded by one of the counsel for the committee; 
but in order to satisfy the other, Mr. Ruggles, who was Deputy Attor- 
ney-General under Mr. Ward, took the stand, and swore that the 
changes in the suit by the People against the Manhattan Company for 
which Mr. Ward has been criticised were made upon his advice or 
with his concurrence in every instance. 

After hearing this statement, both counsel to the committee 
agreed that no ground remained for any criticism of Mr. Ward's action; 
and Mr. Ruggles was assured that his client would not be censured in 
the arguments before the committee, and therefore he was not ex- 
pected to sum up in Mr. Ward's behalf. 

This ends the inquiry so far as Mr. Ward is concerned. Our Im- 
presssion that he would be found blameless has been verified by the 
result. 

Of this vindication the Times took no editorial notice, 
but there was great rejoicing among Mr. Ward's friends 
and the press generally throughout the State gave as wide a 
circulation to the result as they had to the charge. 

And a note of real pleasure seems to sound in the edi- 
torials in the New York Tribune, Buffalo Express, Roches- 
ter Post-Express and other papers throughout Western 
New York. 

Of course Mr. Ward and his friends gave these friendly 
comments wide circulation, but the damage could never be 
wholly cured. Roosevelt promised Washington Moses, 
Allegany's Assemblyman, so Moses wrote Mr. Ward on 
May 21, that he would take occasion to say publicly that Mr. 
Ward was completely vindicated, but it took more courage 
to confess himself in the wrong- than it did to charge at El 
Caney, and the statement was never made. 

Many letters of congratulation were received by Mr. 
Ward, and among them was the following from his old 
friend, C. G. Fairman: 

"Albany, N. Y., May 22, 1882. 
My dear Ward: — Though I never for a moment had a doubt of 
any different result, any more than you yourself could have had. yet I 
feeel that you are entitled to congratulations now from the utter break- 
ing down when only half way over, of this wicked and reckless attempt 



326 HAMILTON WARD. 

to injure you. It is, as I held in the beginning — you could afford to 
have this charge and examination — though not the charge without the 
examination, — because the vindication sure to follow would redound to 
your benefit and advantage. Time was when the charge alone, with- 
out adequate proof, could not injure you. There was a time when a 
man was held to be innocent until he was shown to be guilty; but that 
time has passed. All that is needed now to ruin a man is to accuse 
him, unless he is fortunately able to prove a negative. For this we are 
indebted to the honest and high minded influence of the independent 
metropolitan press, an influence used with reckless disregard of private 
rights or public character, from the baleful incumbus of which there 
is no apparent relief, and which all men who incur its displeasure must 
therefore expect to encounter. That you have endured and passed the 
ordeal, and risen superior to it, in such easy and absolute triumph is a 
fact in which you and your friends may equally rejoice. It is also 
proof once again, let me add, of the immutable truth of the old law 
that "Virtue is its own reward." 

Truly yours, 

CHARLES G. FAIRMAN." 



This from an old newspaper man is significant. 

Justice Westbrook, however, did not fare so well ; a ma- 
jority of the committee reported against his impeachment, 
but a minority recommended to the contrary. 

This report was received by the Legislature, which had 
remained in session, about June 15, and it states that "the 
evidence shows that in the conduct of that litigation Mr. 
Ward was actuated by the purest motive and that his con- 
duct throughout was that of a faithful, high-minded public 
officer." This from a committee composed of a majority of 
Mr. Ward's political antagonists was indeed gratifying. 

The Times remarked that "the most corrupt Assembly 
since the days of Tweed refused to impeach Judge West- 
brook by a vote of 'jj to 35." Roosevelt still representing 
the Times sentiment, urged the adoption of the minority re- 
port, as did H. L. Sprague of New York, who said during 
the discussion in the Assembly that "He was glad to say 
right here that Hamilton Ward had proved himself a man." 
A few days later the Assembly appropriated $1,500 to pay 



MANHATTAN RAILWAY LITIGATION. 327 

the expenses incurred by Mr. Ward during the investigation, 
and the incident closed. 

There can be no adequate compensation for such an ex- 
perience. Hurt in reputation, in prospects, in purse and in 
pride, he could only cherish his barren vindication to his 
bosom, and take up the fight anew. 

An illustration of the "power of the press." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Law and Politics. 1882-1890. 

When Mr. Ward returned to his law office in Belmont 
and took up again the work of his profession, he found local 
conditions much altered. 

Petroleum of high quality had been discovered in five 
towns in the southwestern part of the county; the little 
hamlet of Richburg had grown into a village of 6,000 people, 
with a daily paper ; and law business was good. 

Walter B. Roberts and others held a patent on the pro- 
cess and material used to "shoot" the oil wells and exacted a 
heavy royalty; his patents had to some extent been recog- 
nized in the Pennsylvania Courts, but the New York produc- 
ers refused to pay tribute and an action was brought against 
a considerable number of them in the United States Circuit 
Court of the Northern District of New York. Mr. Ward 
was attorney for most of the defendants and counsel for the 
rest. Injunctions had been secured and Mr. Ward's first 
step was to get these vacated, and to open the default which 
some of the defendants had suffered. A letter describing 
this is as follows : 

THE TORPEDO CASES . 

Belmont, July 19th, 1882. 
To the Editor of The Reporter. 

Dear Sir: — The Reporter is in error about the result of the mo- 
tions at Syracuse on the 13th inst., brought by nine oil producers In 
the Allegany oil field to set aside defaults which had occurred in suits 
brought by Roberts aind others against the producers, charging them 
with infringing certain patents which the complainants claimed to 
hold for increasing the production of oil wells. In each of these cases 
injunctions had been issued, and as counsel for the producers I moved 
the court to open the defaults and let in the defendants to defend and 
Btop all proceedings against them on the default, and to dissolve the 
injunction in each case. Messrs. Conkling, Harding and Patterson. 



ROBERTS TORPEDO CASES. 329 

for the complainants, read a large mass of papers and affidavits and 
strenuously contended against opening the defaults, insisting that the 
Roberts' patents had been sustained by the courts in Pennsylvania, 
and if the defendants were let in to defend, it would be useless as they 
could not succeed. They also read affidavits, which I had no means 
of contradicting at Syracuse, that one of the defendants had violated 
the injunction after it was served upon him, and proved by the records 
that three of the defendants while in Pennsylvania had had judgment 
entered against them, sustaining Roberts' patents in just such suits as 
these, and an affidavit showing that one other defendant had formerly 
settled just such a case with Roberts and paid damages. 

The court opened the defaults in all the cases and allowed aU 
the defendants to answer and defend, and stayed all further proceed- 
ings on the defaults. In three cases above referred to the court per^ 
mitted the injunctions to stand to await the result of the suits, saying 
that the defendants by their acts as above set forth were not in a con- 
dition to ask to be relieved from the injunction against violating cer- 
tain patents that Roberts held, that had been sustained by the Penn- 
sylvania courts, but he vacated all that part of the injunction in those 
five cases which restrained the defendants from violating a patent ob- 
tained by Edward L. Sweet, which has many years to run and which 
the complainants claimed as assignees. 

The court also decided that as to the defendant charged with 
violating the injunction and the one charged with settling a former 
case, they were at liberty to make another motion to set aside the in- 
junction, as they might be able to show that they had not committed 
the acts charged. 

In the other four cases full relief was granted, the injunctions 
totally dissolved and all the injunctions would have been dissolved 
but for the reasons aforesaid. 

The court in no way passed upon the merits of the cases, butj 
granted all the relief under the circumstances that the defendants had 
a right to ask. 

The statements going around in the newspapers that the pro- 
ducers were defeated on these motions is unfounded, but as will be 
seen from the above, they are substantially successful. 

I make this statement that producers may know the facts. 
Respectfully yours, 

HAMILTON WARD. 

This litigation grew very extensive. Courts in PittS' 



330 HAMILTON WARD. 

burg, Buffalo, and Utica were appealed to, the defendants 
finally numbered several hundred. 

There was no real defense to these actions; the object 
of the defendants was to secure as much delay as possible, 
while the new oil territory was being developed. 

This purpose was accomplished and practically all of 
the Allegany wells were shot free of Robert's royalty ; finally 
the actual defendants compromised by paying Roberts 
$50.00 each, without costs. This result greatly pleased the 
oil men. 

After a contest in the County Convention of this year 
Theron Cross was nominated for Sheriff of Allegany County 
on the Republican ticket, and Ittai J. Elliott on the Demo- 
cratic ticket. Elliott made a brilliant canvass, and, aided by 
the Cleveland landslide of that year, received 3,832 votes; 
Cross 3,847 votes, and there were 19 ballots cast on which 
Elliott's name was improperly written. The Board of 
County Canvassers declared Cross elected, but Mr. Ward, in 
spite of his political affiliations, put the lawyer above the 
politician, accepted Elliott's retainer, mandamused the 
board, and Elliott assumed the office. Cross lacking the 
courage to continue the contest. 

In 1883 the Caneadea Bond cases were revived by an 
action in the United States Courts, and Judge Wallace writ- 
ing the opinion, held the bonds to be void on the same 
ground relied upon in the State Courts. 

The same decision was rendered as to the towns of An- 
gelica and Birdsall, saving to the people of those towns over 
$100,000. In all these actions Mr. Ward represented the de- 
fendants. 

Law business continued to be good for several years. 
There would be as high as two hundred cases on the calen- 
dar of the Allegany Term of the Supreme Court, and often 
twenty-five would be ready for trial on the first day, and in 
almost every important litigation Mr. Ward appeared. 

In 1882 Chemung in her turn again received the Con- 
gressional nomination, Archie Baxter of Elmira being the 
candidate, but he was defeated by John Arnot of Elmira. 



ii; 



A CANDIDATE FOR JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT, 1883. 331 

In this year Mr. Ward attempted to secure anti-Cornell 
State delegates in Allegany County, but he was routed by 
Dr. William Smith of Angelica, whom Cornell had appoint- 
ed health officer of the Port of New York, a position at that 
time worth $50,000 a year. 

Mr. Ward continued to be active in politics. In the 
fall of 1883 he became again a candidate for Justice of the 
Supreme Court, and was presented to the district by his 
county in the following resolution : 

SUPREME COURT JUDGE. 

The following is the resolution of the Allegany County Republi- 
can Convention, held September 11, 1883: 

Resolved, That in view of the fact that the County of Allegany 
is the least accommodated of any of the counties in the Eighth Judicial 
District by the location of the present Judges of the Supreme Court 
and the difficulty and delay in reaching the Judges by persons having 
business with them from said county. And in view also of the large 
and constantly increasing litigation in this county, growing out of the 
increased prosperity and population and an immense oil development, 
this convention is of the opinion that one of the Supreme Court Judges 
to be elected this fall should be located in Allegany County, and we 
earnestly call the attention of the other counties of the district to this 
subject. And as our candidate for that office, we hereby unanimously 
present the name of Hon. Hamilton Ward, who needs no introduction 
at our hands to the people of this district, by whom he is known as a 
man of strict integrity and as possessing the highest qualifications for 
the place, and as his faithful and able services as District Attorney of 
our county for six years, as our Representative in Congress for three 
terms, and as Attorney-General of the State, has abundantly shown, 
and we hereby instruct the judicial delegates elected by this conven- 
tion to put forth all honorable effort possible to secure his nomination. 

CHARLES H. FISHER, 
Chairman Allegany County Republican Committee. 

Two new Justices were to be nominated at this time, as 
provided by the new State Constitution, and the candidates 
were numerous, the principal ones being Thomas Corlett of 
Buffalo, Henry L.Childs of Orleans, Allen D.Scott of Cattar- 



332 HAMILTON WARD. 

augus; A, K. Potter of Niagara, and Porter Sheldon of Chau- 
tauqua. 

Among the delegates were H. J. Weisenhemer, Charles 
E. Forsyth, George Quinby, James C. Fullerton, E. W. 
Hatch and C. A. Orr of Erie, H. W. Sanford and H. H. 
Relya of Allegany, T. E. Ellsworth of Niagara, E. M. Bart- 
lett of Wyoming, L. B. Sessions ot Chautauqua, W. C. Wat- 
son and George Bowen of Genesee, Alfred Spring and O. S. 
Vreeland of Cattaraugus, and E. L. Pitts of Orleans. E. 
W. Platch was chairman and had great influence in the con- 
vention. Thomas Corlett was nominated on the first ballot 
as one of the Justices, and it took 41 ballots to name the 
other candidate, Henry L. Childs. On one ballot Mr. Ward 
received twelve votes, sixteen being needed to nominate ; 
six of the twelve came from Erie. If all the Erie delegates 
had voted for Mr. Ward, as it was understood they would 
between Mr. Ward and Mr. Hatch, Mr. Ward would have 
been nominated. This was a denial of the claims of Alle- 
gany and Cattaraugus to a judgeship, and created great in- 
dignation in those counties. Their claims had been vainly 
urged the year before in behalf of B. C. Rude of Wellsville, 
and the people were ripe for a political revolt. 

On October 24th the Democrats nominated Delevan F. 
Clark of Erie and Charles S. Cary of Olean, and an exceed- 
ingly lively campaign was begun in the Counties of Alle- 
gany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua to elect Cary and defeat 
Corlett. Barely two weeks remained in which to make this 
fight, but so thoroughly was it done and so strong was Mr. 
Ward's personal influence in his home county that almost 
the total vote of Allegany, normally Republican by about 
three thousand, was cast for Mr. Cary and against Mr. Cor- 
lett. Cattaraugus County was also carried by Cary, and he 
was only defeated in the district, normally 14,000 Republi- 
can, by 2.850 votes. Allegany County was carried by Cary, 
3,610; Cattaraugus, 1,014, and he ran 462 ahead in Chau- 
tauqua. Many of the rock-ribbed Republicans of Allegany 
could not be induced to vote for a Democrat, so V. A. Wil- 
lard of Belmont was nominated on the Prohibition ticket, 



HIS ONLY BOLT. 333 

and received 1,526 \otes, so that Corlett only received 2,298 
votes in Allegany County, about one-third of the usual Re- 
publican vote. 

There was no attempt to defeat Justice Childs, whose 
plurality was 13.775 over his Democratic adversary, or 
10.895 ahead of Corlett. The latter figures show the extent 
of the bolt which was inaugurated in a two weeks' campaign. 

This was the only time in Mr. Ward's political career 
when he openly bolted the party nomination, but the sense 
of local wrong was such that it outweighed party consider- 
ation, and it is to be noted that e\ery Justice elected since 
that time outside of the city of Buffalo has been taken from 
this territory that revolted, so that they now (1900) have five 
of the ten Justices of the district, and it must have always 
been a source of great personal satisfaction to Mr. Ward 
to note how steadfastly Republican Allegany followed him 
in his bolt. Things like this made him willingly forgo the 
wider opportunities a residence in a large city would have 
given him. 

James G .Blaine was nominated for President in 1884, 
and the Republicans of Belmont, in accordance with tbeir 
usual custom, held a ratification meeting. Mr. Ward's 
speech was reported in the Elmira Advertiser as follows: 

Mr. Blaine was the most conspicuous person whose name was 
presented to the Chicago convention. He had been long in public life. 
He took a prominent part in the great struggle that preceded the re^* 
hellion and was always on the right side. He was opposed to slavery. 
He was a member of the three great congresses that followed the war, 
and took a leading part in the work of reconstruction. The great 
amendments of the federal constitution, the thirteenth, fourteenth and 
fifteenth, that crystalized the fruits of the war and made that constitu- 
tion the purest, strongest and greatest charter of human rights and 
liberties that the world has ever known, were to some extent his work; 
for as a member of the congresses that originated these amendments 
he favored them all and contributed by his learning, experience and 
ability to pass them through Congress and present them to the States 
for adoption; and since that time on every occasion when his party or 
his country called him into service he has promptly and bravely re- 
sponded to that call. 



334 HAMILTON WARD. 

He was nominated because he was the choice of his party un- 
mistakably expressed. The Republicans had watched him for a quar- 
ter of a century and always found him right. Although a well-planned 
calumny had struck him down at the doors of the Cincinnati conven- 
tion in 1876; although he was beaten back in 1880 by the man of Appo- 
mattox; although he was driven from public life and from the head of 
the Cabinet upon the death of Garfield, yet the people clung to him 
and he grew stronger year by year until the voices that came up from 
the workshop and the farm, and from all the humble places of the peo- 
ple, grew louder until they swelled into one great and irresistible 
chorus that took the convention by storm and compelled his nomina- 
tion. Mr. Blaine's immense personal following in this country is not 
due to accident or caprice. He is a born leader and a representative 
man. I shall earnestly support this ticket. It is worthy of the sup- 
port of the people. When the wires flashed the intelligence of the 
nominations no man inquired, who is Blaine, or who is Logan? They 
were known of all men, and to the ends of the earth. Let no one be 
alarmed at the clatter and spasms of the so-called "independents." 
There are some men to good for anything on this earth, too pur© to 
be satisfied with anybody but themselves. The Republican party has 
been afllicted with this species of humanity since its foundation. Some 
were too exalted to support Lincoln; others too high-toned for Grant; 
and I suppose we shall never make a nomination that will suit them;^ 
but we have this consolation — that their votes are few and will count 
but little when the returns come in. The great patriotic masses of this 
country will roll up a grand majority for the standard bearer. This 
party which saved the nation, abolished slavery, furnished the country 
with the best financial system that the world has ever seen and secured 
a prosperity for this land unparalleled in the history of nations. The 
people are no more ready in this year of 1884, than they have been in 
all the Presidential elections since Lincoln was elected and the South- 
ern Democracy attempted to destroy the Republic, to turn this coun- 
try, with all its vast interests and possibilities, over to the Democratic 
party with its State right dogmas and theories of free trade. 

It shows that Mr. Ward did not allow his old time ani- 
mosity against Blaine to influence his poHtical action. In 
this year there w^as considerable talk of re-electing him to 
Congress. Of his personality at this time the Randolph 
Register of February 7th, 1884, says: 



POLITICS, 1885-6. 335 

The two most probable candidates from Allegany are Hon. Ham- 
ilton Ward of Belmont and Hon. D. P. Richardson of Angelica. The 
first-named gentleman was some years ago Attorney-General of this 
State and enjoys the reputation of being one of the best lawyers in, 
this commonwealth. He is fifty-three or four years of age, stands 
about five feet, eight inches in height, with iron-gray hair and dark 
moustache, intellectually wrinkled forehead, reaching well back be- 
neath his silk hat, while his square, compact shoulders are always 
covered with a closely-fitting Prince Albert coat, buttoned the entire 
length. He has a deep, pleasant voice, and in manner he is second 
only to the suave and courteous ex-Governor Fenton of Jamestown. 

Mr. Ward was not, however, a candidate before the 
convention. By the new apportionment Allegany had been 
put in the same Congressional district with Chautauqua and 
Cattaraugus. Walter Sessions and the sitting member, Dr. 
Brewer of Westfield, were the candidates, and Mr. Ward 
supported Dr. Brewer. The county, however, was almost 
equally divided, the balance of the delegates, under the lead 
of D. P. Richardson, supporting vSessions, who was nom- 
inated. 

In 1885 Mr. Ward supported William M. Evarts, who 
was elected United States Senator, and was himself desirous 
of an appointment to the United States District Court in 
Colorado, on account of the health of his younger son, but 
President Arthur, who had drifted away from his old stal- 
wart associations, did not see fit to appoint him. 

In 1886 Mr. Ward was considerably talked of for Con- 
gress. He had the support of a majority of the Allegany 
County delegates, forty-seven out of fifty-four friendly, 
Rufus Scott of Wellsville being supported by the balance. 
Mr. Ward threw his support to William G. Laidlaw of Cat- 
taraugus, and nominated him. In this year he supported 
Frank Hiscock of Syracuse in his candidacy for the United 
States Senate, and was one of those most instrumental in secur- 
ing his nomination, thereby defeating Warner Miller, who 
had defeated Conkling. 

Mr. Ward spent some time in Albany during the fight 
and held several Western New York members in line for 



336 HAMILTON WARD. 

Hiscock, until the Morton forces broke to him and nominated 
him. 

Mr. Ward dehvered a decoration day address at Bath, 
in Steuben County, in this year, which is, in part, as follows : 

Mr. Ward began by saying: It would have seemed more appro- 
priate to me if some one who had stood in the fore rank of battle were 
to deliver the address, but it has always been my duty and pleasure to 
respond to the call of the soldier, and when the summons came through 
Col. Rumsey I answered: "Here am I," and here I am. When I stand 
before the men who saved this country for me and mine — my superiors 
•^I stand bowed and uncovered. To-day the Nation turns to the 
Nation's dead; all through the loyal States the great surging, nervous 
tide of humanity turns into holy places and decorates with flowers the 
grass-bound graves of the heroes of the Republic. Why do we see this 
multitude assembled here to-day? The farmer has left his fields, the 
mechanic his bench, the merchant his counter, and the student hisi 
books. Womanhood and old age are here, and little children grown 
suddenly serious endeavoring to comprehend the mystery of death. 
We are a practical, pioneer people and not a nation of dreamers, w© 
are battling with the preblems of the century and making haste to get 
rich, and yet to-day we turn aside to consider graver questions, for 

"Four hundred thousand men, 
The brave, the good, the true, 

In tangled woods and mountain glen, 

On battle plain, in prison pen, 
Lie dead for me and you. 

"Four hundred thousand of the brave. 

Have made this ransomed land their grave 
For me and you — 

Good friend for me and you." 
********* 
There is one thing that has pained me the past three or four 
years, and no loyal heart will accuse me of partisan purpose in speak- 
ing of it— it is the talk about the mingling of the Gray with the Blue. 
I heard a Republican Member of Congress speak of the rebel dead and 
the Union dead as the Nation's dead. Those who fell fighting to de- 
stroy the Nation are not the Nation's dead, and they should not be hon- 
ored as my brothers and yours who fell fighting in the Nation's de- 
fense. You cannot call this sentiment or partisanship. You decorate 
the soldiers' graves in honor of the cause in which they died — because 



DECORATION DAY SPEECH, 1886. 337 

you want that cause to be honored in the future — because you want 
future generations to honor it, and hence it is that you should not eeek 
by any posthumous observances to honor the cause of treason. Do 
you remember that the first traitor flung away the 30 pieces of silver — 
the price of his treason — and that the Potter's field in which he was 
buried, was bought with the money? The Scriptures say that it is 
called the field of blood to this day. Would any matron here bow at 
the dust of Helen as at that of Lucretia? Would the Revolutionary 
fathers honor the grave of Benedict Arnold as they would that of 
Ethan Allen? I say honor to whom honor is due, and while the Gov-» 
ernment has hung no traitors, and I am sorry for that, and while the 
Government has not made treason odious, and I am sorry for that, be- 
cause of the influence in the future, it does not follow that we should 
not observe the distinction between the Blue, the heavens' own color, 
and the Gray has now become a curse; in the calendar of colors. 
All parties were responsible for this amnesty, and it was the greatest 
mistake a Nation ever made. Greeley, one of the foremost of Republi- 
cans, with others of his party, came forward with leading Democrats, 
and urged it upon the Nation. When I represented you in Congress, 
and it was all through the amnesty and pardon legislation, I never 
voted to relieve one mother's son of them from disability. This am- 
nesty was all a mistake — we cannot reverse the lessons of all history. 

1887 witnessed one of the hottest political campaigns 
ever known in Allegany County. Sumner Baldwin, of 
Wellsville. was a candidate for State Senator, and was sup- 
ported by Mr. Ward against J. Sloat Fassett, the previous in- 
cumbent, who had married a California heiress and had be- 
come extremely wealthy. With all the weapons at his com- 
mand he waged an aggressive fight against Mr. Ward's lead- 
ership in Allegany Coimty, and even attempted to carry the 
town of Amity, where he secured fifty votes in a caucus of 
over three hundred. Senator Baldwin was, however, un- 
able to adopt the same plan of warfare, and lost the county 
by a narrow margin. 

In the spring of 1888 Mr. Ward took a trip to tlie 
Pacific Coast, and was furnished with letters of introduction 
by Roscoe Conkling and C. P. Huntington, president of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad. His purpose was to see the 
country and if the proper opportunity presented itself, to es- 
tablish himself in the West. He visited Wichita. Kansas, 



338 HAMILTON WARD. 

and was offered the attorneyship of the city and of a Rail- 
road Company if he would remove there, and similar offers 
were made to him in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. 
After sometime spent on the coast he returned to Belmont, 
where he decided to remain. 

Many times during his life Mr. Ward talked of moving 
to some more extensive field of action, but the faithful 
friendship of the people of Allegany, the associations of a 
lifetime spent among her beautiful valleys, were attractions 
that always conquered. 

Moreover, much of his time was spent in the neighbor- 
ing cities, and when asked by a friend on one occasion why 
he did not remove to Buffalo, he replied : "All the world is 
to me a tavern." 

At this time Mr. Ward exercised a preponderating in- 
fluence in the political affairs of the county and controlled 
the Federal patronage. His political interest, however, 
continued broader than the confines of the county, and in 
January. 1889, he wrote the following letter to President 
Harrison : 

"Belmont, Allegany Co., N. Y., Jan'y 7th, 1889. 
General Benjamin Harrison, 

President-elect. 

Dear Sir: — May I presume to address you upon a matter of deep 
concern to the Republicans of New York, and indeed to those of the 
whole countr>-? 

And first let me introduce myself. 

My earliest recollections carries me back to a ride with my 
Whig father on a log that was put into a log cabin raised at a political 
meeting in 1840. 

Since I have voted I have been a Republican In Western New 
York, and the Republicans of my district have honored me with a seat 
in the .'?9, 40 and 41 Congresses, and in 1879 T was elected Attorney- 
General of this State. 

I have been classed (if in any division) in the party among the 
supporters of Roscoe Conkling, and was one of his most intimate and 
devoted friends, and with many others of his friends (some of whom 
I regret to say did not support Mr. Blaine in 1884) did all the service 



URGES PLATT FOR THE TREASURY. 339 

possible in the recent campaign. Indeed that class of men finally 
tipped the beam for Harrison and Morton in this State. 

We hope the incoming President will not make the fatal mis- 
take made by Hayes and Garfield by giving New York an inferior posi- 
tion in the Cabinet. That State should have a first class position; 
that New York should not be ignored in the Cabinet all agree. It ia 
proper then for New Yorkers to make suggestions to you on this deli- 
cate subject. I have no doubt but you will receive them kindly even 
from as humble a source as myself. 

Our State should have the Secretary of the Treasury. Her finan- 
cial standing and superiority and importance in the Union, &c., de- 
mand it. He should be a business man of wide and varied experience, 
a statesman familiar with public affairs; a watchful, patient, capable 
man, and in addition to this one who knows something about political 
management, who when anything is to be done will do it so as to help 
the President and the party in the future as well as to do the best 
thing for the country; the Honorable Thomas C. Piatt fairly answers 
all these conditions, more so than any other man in the State who 
would be thoucht of in connection with this office. 

I am not in his confidence, nor do I belong to the inner circle of 
his political friends. I am one of the last men in the world he would 
expect would write such a letter. I trust New York to be Republican 
in the future I v/ant your administration to be a grand success, hence 
I trouble you with this letter. 

HAMILTON WARD." 

A copy mailed to Senator Piatt, elicited this reply : 

"New York, Jan. 9, 1889. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward, 

Belmont, New York. 
My dear General: — I duly received yours of the 7th inst. with 
the enclosure of the copy of the communication addressed to the Presi- 
dent-elect, and I v/ant to assure you that I am greatly pleased with and 
flattered by it. Nothing that I have had of that sort (and there have 
been a good many of them) has struck me as being so pithy and adroit. 
I have read it to two or three confidential friends ,and it struck them 
as it did me, as being a letter that would carry great weight. 
Accept my most grateful acknowledgments. 
Yours very truly, 

T. C. PLATT." 



340 HAMILTON WARD. 

Senator Piatt was not, however, appointed, with the re- 
sult that the party leaders opposed Harrison's renomination 
for re-election in 1892, and the campaign of that year was so 
luke-warm and leaderless that the Democrats were over- 
whelmingly successful. In this year occurred the last of 
Mr. Ward's causes celebres. 

C. S. Whitney, at that time Belmont's wealthiest citi- 
zen, a man of strong character and wide business interests, 
sued his wife, a handsome and intelligent woman, for a 
divorce. Mr. Whitney had been previously married and 
had a daughter, then a young lady, by a former wife. A 
young Belmont lawyer and former law student of Mr. 
Ward's, named Ira H. Meyers, had ingratiated himself with 
the whole family, and finally had taken up his residence at 
the Whitney mansion. Mr. Whitney spent the greater por- 
tion of his time away from Belmont and reconciled himself 
to Meyers' presence by the thought that he was courting his 
daughter. Warnings fell on unheeding ears until it was 
forced upon him that Meyers sought his wife instead of his 
daughter; Meyers was driven from the house and was ac- 
companied by both ladies. 

They took up their residence at the village hotel and 
an action for divorce was immediately brought by Mr. Whit- 
ney. Mr. Ward represented the plaintiff and Mr. Love- 
ridge of Cuba was the principal counsel for the defendant; 
the case was bitterly contested and resulted in a verdict for 
the plaintiff. Immediately thereafter Meyers married the 
daughter, who had $35,000 in her own right, and with the 
two women took up his residence in Buffalo. 

Parts of Mr. Ward's summing up of this case are as fol- 
lows : 

At the Court House in Angelica, Allegany Co., N. Y., June 21, 
1889. 

ADDRESS TO THE JURY. 

By Hon. Hamilton Ward. 

If Your Honor please, Gentlemen of the Jury: — This is to me a 

very painful case. It originated in the village in which I live; it is a 

controversy among old friends and neighbors; it is a matter which 

tends to dishonor the society and the people of our town, and it is the 



WHITNEY DIVORCE CASE. 341 

breaking up and destruction of a family. The family is the foundation 
of all good things in government; it is the parent of morality; it is the 
protection against vice; it is the sentinel that stands guard over the 
best interests of society. When anything occurs that breaks up the 
family it is a matter to be deplored by all good citizens. 

If Charles S. Whitney had not been a better man than I am there 
would have been no trial of this action before you. If I had been in that 
office of Ira Myers when my own daughter turned against me, under 
the influences that surrounded her, in the possession of these people, 
as she was, when she said, "If I ever have a home I hope you will never 
cross my threshold," and Mr. Whitney bowed and said he would not 
trouble her, there would have been no bowing on my part, one man and 
one woman would have been sent to their last account at the end of a 
revolver, and that girl would have been taken from that place if neces- 
sary by the hair of her head. * * * * Why, if you could know this 
man you would know that he had been a friend of everybody. From the 
time he started a penniless boy until this hour he had stood so high, 
he has been so generous and manly that whoever came to him received 
his help, and all the troubles he has ever had in his life came from 
helping somebody, and now he has come into a court of justice, he 
comes here, gentlemen, he don't take the law in his hands as I should 
have done and as you would have done, he comes here and says "I- 
have never done a wrong act in my life, I will leave this question to a 
jury of my countrymen, to twelve men honest and true, I will ask 
them to settle this question! And here he is, gentlemen. And he 
comes here with twenty-nine witnesses, and not one of them is related 
to him, not one of them has had any business with him, not one of them 
has in any manner been impeached except the foolish attempt to at- 
tack Mrs. Graden. They are in no way related to him by blood or 
marriage except Mr. Williams, the brother, and young Williams, the 
nephew of his own wife. Not blood relatives of his. He comes here 
I say with these witnesses .honorable people — he is not permitted to 
speak in his own behalf. The law forbids him. He did not even in- 
troduce his son, or give any evidence by his own son. The son was 
put upon the stand, but I found there were other witnesses that knew 
the same thing, and I preferred, gentlemen of the jury, that you should 
take this case from the lips of witnesses that had no connection with 
the plaintiff. I preferred that in a case of this importance you should 
see these witnesses and know that they were not a set of liars and 
vagabonds as the counsel has insinuated here. The plaintiff comes 
into court, and who does he meet here as witnesses against him? He 
meets the woman that he elevated from poverty and sorrow, and made 



342 HAMILTON WARD. 

a lady, and put her in a palace and furnished her with all the choice 
things of life, and gave her money and jewelry, and left her at home to 
preserve his family honor. Who else confronts him? That woman's 
boy that he has taken and reared and educated and done everything' 
for him as he would his own son. Who else confronts him? The man 
Myers that he believed in, that he had faith in, that he gave his law 
business to, paid him hundreds of dollars a year, and he invited him 
to come to his house. And now, gentlemen, who else confronts him 
here? His own child, his only daughter, who has had every advantage, 
who has been educated, who confesses herself until very lately she 
never knew anything from her father but kindness and affection, that 
child is here and tells her story against him. And these witnesses, 
are they disinterested? Gentlemen of the jury, you know the evidence 
on the other side is confined to four witnesses with the single excep- 
tion of Mrs. Tracy, and her evidence went farther to assist the plaintift 
than the defendant. Aside from Mrs. Tracy all the witnesses they 
have produced here are who? Myers, who has got to swear himself 
out of this or go to pieces; the woman who has got to swear herself out 
of this or be divorced and dishonored; the woman's boy who has got to 
help his mother swear out of this or he loses his support and has to 
go to work like other boys and earn his own living, and then that poor 
child. I will speak of her by and by. 

I must complain of my friend on the other side for the manner 
of his speech to this jury. I do not recognize the right of any lawyer 
because he stands before a jury and cannot be said to be hindered, 
and abuse honest people as this attorney abused certain witnesses for 
the plaintiff. He began at Ellen Lynch and Bridget Toomey because 
they were servant girls, and said Mr. Whitney belittled and dishonored 
himself by having anything to do with servant girls. Why, upon what 
meat has this young lawyer fed that he thinks a servant girl is so con- 
temptible? Gentlemen of the jury, what evidence is there against 
these servant girls? He knew that if either of them was believed, if 
one-tenth of what either of them swore to is believed, you upon your 
oaths as honest men had got to say that Charles S. Whitney was en- 
titled to a divorce from the woman that had dishonored his bed and his 
home. And so the attorney must tear down these women, and he com- 
mences by denouncing Ellen Lynch because she has black eyes. She 
is not a blonde as my friend, the attorney, is; he has got blue eyes. 
Gentlemen of the jury, how contemptuously he told how Ellen Lynch's 
eyes flashed. And then he attacks Mrs. Gordon because she is a 
working woman, and because on one occasion she did a little washing 
for Mr. Whitney. And then comes at Bridget Toomey with toma- 



WHITNEY DIVORCE CASE. 343 

hawks. He did not say anything about her eyes as I believe she has 
eyes just the color of the counsel's. What was Ellen Lynch's offense 
gentlemen of the jury? While I am on the subject of speaking of the 
character of witnesses I wish to say a word in behalf of these poor 
girls. They do not go around with diamonds on their fingers; they do 
not expect a grandfather to die and leave them forty or fifty thousand 
dollars; they do not go to New York with somebody else's husband;, 
they do not go to Buffalo with some other man against the wishes of 
the father and the husband, what do they do? They wash, they sew, 
they knit, they earn their own living, their hands are hard and their 
hearts are honest. And I tell you, gentlemen of the Jury, but for the 
virtue and integrity of the laboring classes this country would go to 
pieces and its whole moral structure vanish in corruption and fraud. 
What right has counsel to stand up here and insinuate that Ellen 
Lynch is a bad woman because she works for a living and finally tells 
the truth when she is put upon the stand and compelled to testify? 
He complains, gentlemen of the jury, that she did not tell this before. 
You have read, have you not, of the smothered volcanoes of the Isles 
of the Asiatic Seas? There will be a mountain that appears to be 
harmlfSo, but underneath the ground there are smouldering fires, and 
they are growing and growing, and growing until explosion comes, 
and then the mountain is all aflame. In that Belmont village there 
was a family of high repute; there was a lady that carried her h^ad 
high ; there was a husband that would have resented with his life most 
any insinuation against his wife, because he believed her to be pure, 
and would allow no man to come to him and put him on his guard. 
But there was a smouldering volcano there. McNett saw things, Ellen 
saw things, Bridget saw things, Adams saw things, VanCleef saw things, 
and all the other witnesses, but they kept them to themselves. Had 
they said one word they would perhaps have been prosecuted. They 
said nothing. They did not want to tell anything to break up a family, 
or to bring about trouble that possibly there was no foundation for. 
But mind you, gentlemen of the jury, they saw things that attracted 
their attention, they saw unnatural and unusual things and they re- 
member them. Now, when you see what is occurring and people are 
acting in a natural way, you do not remember it, you do not think 
about it. A man is going along plowing on his farm, or to work in his 
shop, or any other occupation, in a natural way, if society Is moving in 
its natural and proper way, you think nothing of it, but when you find 
society acting a little corrupt, acing a little suspicious, it attracts your 
attention and you remember it. You remember the peculiar things that 
you see in other people. They may point to crime, they may be care- 



344 HAMILTON WARD. 

lessness or indiscretion, but it attracts your attention, you keep your 
own counsel, the volcano is still smouldering in your breast, finally 
the collapse comes and the flames burst out and everything is exposed, 
then people tell the secrets they have had hidden in their hearts. And 
that was the precise condition of things in this case. After the at- 
tempt of this man to keep his household together had failed and he had 
at last learned the truth he drove Myers out of his house, charging 
him with being an adulterer, and his wife and daughter followed him, 
then it was, gentlemen, that outside people spoke. Then it was that 
Mr. Whitney was able to put his hand upon the damaging proofs which 
we have presented to you upon this trial. * * * * i am not here to 
abuse women. You will stop right here and ask why in God's name this 
woman, with all these surroundings, with this wealth, with this good 
husband, with this situation in society, why she should have fallen? 
The greatest of English poets has answered that question. "So virtue, 
as it never can be moved, though lewdness court it In the shape of 
Heaven, so lust though to a radient Angel linked will state itself in a 
celestial bed and feed on garbage." It makes no difference, gentlemen, 
how high or how low the woman is, if the devil is in her the devil will 
come out. * * * 

We now reach the time when Miss Florence comes back from 
school, and do you say now, can anybody say that this adulterous rela- 
tion had not been established then? Certainly it had. Then why drag 
this poor girl in as a cover for their subsequent iniquities? I will tell 
you why. Everybody in Belmont understood this thing but Charles S. 
Whitney. They understood it by the ways that communities under- 
stand truths, by the ways that facts are circulated through communi- 
ties, by those mysterious agencies that go from mind to mind and from 
ear to ear carrying the truth. But he was misled, he believed in his 
wife, believed in his daughter, believed in Myers, would not hear a 
word against them. But the community had passed its judgment, and 
if they continued those relations any more they had got to have a 
cover. And who in God's name do they select? They select the inno- 
cent daughter of this plaintiff. Not content with robbing him of his 
wife, not content with dishonoring his home, this man Myers lays siege 
for this child. She swears she admired him very much, she swears he 
early began paying attentions to her, and he began paying attentions 
to her at the time when any man ought to have Been shot to engage in 
that sort of business. But who knew that, gentlemen of the jury? 
Mrs. Charles S. Whitney. In whose keeping had that girl been placed 
by this devoted father? When he had buried her dead mother and 



WHITNEY DIVORCE CASE. 345 

had this infant child to care for be got another wife, and she soon died 
with consumption. And then he married the sister of that wife, the 
present wife, and then he turned over this girl to her to care for and to 
guide her steps aright, bring her up to womanhood and said, "I will 
leave her in your care and you must protect her." Ah, how has she 
protected her? Oh, that the spirit of the dead mother could have hov- 
ered over that child and saved her. When I asked the girl about her 
mother she hardly knew who I meant. "What mother did you say?" 
You remember the evidence was that Miss Florence's mother died 
when she was an infant. In Coleridge's beautiful poem of "Chrysta- 
bel," a country baron owning large estates had a daughter just verg- 
ing upon womanhood that had been reared in his baronial mansion by 
the father from infancy, her mother having died when she was very 
young. One bright moonlight night the daughter wandered out into 
a park adjoining the mansion ,and when she ha'd reached a great oak 
tree she heard on the other side of this tree moaning and sounds of 
distress. On looking she discovered a beautiful woman who appealed 
to her for charity and protection. The girl took this woman to her 
father's mansion and into her own chamber and kindly cared for her 
and soothed her distresses. The woman thus found was a fiend in 
human shape. She took the girl in her arms in her bed chamber, and 
then the spirt of her dead mother came to rescue her child from the 
fiend's embrace, and the fiend exclaimed to the shadow: 

"Off wandering mother, peek and pine, 

I have power to bid thee flee. 
Off woman, off, this hour is mine 

Though thou her guardian angel be. 

Off woman, off, 'tis gi\en to me." 

When Mr. Whitney in trusting confidence placed his infant 
daughter in the charge of this woman, the defendant, did he not give 
her to the fiend? Her conduct with this child justifies the charge. 

She introduces this man Myers. Instead of protecting this child 
she places her in his company, and they control her, set her up against 
her father and drag her from him. When her friends write her this 
woman tells her not to answer it, she obeys. Her cousins upon her 
mother's side, all her blood relatives try to reach her, but they might 
as well try to reach a woman in the grave. The fiend is ever present. 
She is in the fiend's embrace. Her father comes with a force to take 
her, she will not go. The woman is there; there she is. Her father 
says to the daughter, "I will send you to Europe, I will do anything for 



346 HAMILTON WARD. 

you, anywhere you can go with suitable companions," (Mr. Whitney's 
mouth is sealed, it would have been much stronger could he have 
spoken and told us his story), "anything to save you, and I will prove 
to you that this man Myers and this woman have committed adultery." 
Now, this girl is nineteen years of age, the counsel says she is shrewd. 
But she is so much in the power of these people that she is turned 
away from all her father's petitions, she is turned away from 
this road to salvation, and there is not power enough among all 
her friends, among all the good people, the good women and cousins 
and relatives that are sending up daily and nightly prayers to save 
this child, there is no power anywhere to rescue her from the embrace 
of this woman. And then the father believes that when this thing Is 
presented to a juiy, and he subpoenas his child into court to hear it, 
that at last the ears of this girl will be opened and she will be saved. 
And in spite of all she did say to us, "I don't believe that my mother is 
guilty, and if I should believe it," the inference was that she at last 
might be rescued. Gentlemen of the jury, it is for you to say how it is. 

If you believe that this adultery has been committed, for God's 
sake say so. Say so in justice to this plaintiff, say so as the last 
earthly attempt to save this child. 

********* 

Great God, gentlemen, can any case be stronger? Are you to 
allow any foolish sympathy in this case to control you? You are 
fathers, you are husbands, you have daughters and wives, do you want 
the sanctuary of your homes broken up? Do you want to encourage 
by your verdict things like this? Gentlemen of the jury, remember 
there is another man in this case — Myers. Will you vindicate him? 
Will you not do justice to this woman? Put forth your hands, gentle- 
men of the jury, in God's name, and pluck this girl like a brand from 
the burning and give Mr. Whitney that justice which by the laws of 
God and Man he is entitled to." 

The jur}^ were out but a short time and returned with 
the verdict previously mentioned. 

The term of Supreme Court Justice, George Barker of 
Fredonia, expired on the ist day of January, 1890, and there 
were the usual number of candidates to succeed him. He, 
himself, was also a candidate ,2nd was generally supported 
in Erie County. Other candidates were: John S. Lam- 
bert, County Judge of Chautauqua County; A. K. Potter of 



JUDICIAL CONTEST, 1889. 347 

Niagara County, Alfred Spring and Judge Scott of Cattar- 
augus, and Mr. Ward of Allegany, who was elected chairman 
of the convention. 

Judge Lambert carried Chautauqua County against 
Judge Barker, and at the convention which assembled in 
Buffalo on the 4th of October, the first ballot showed 13 
votes for Barker, five for Lambert, six for Scott and six for 
Potter, Barker receiving nine votes from Erie, two from Or- 
lans and two from Genesee. 

Henry W. Brendel of Erie voted for Lambert, Wyom- 
ing and Niagara for Potter and Allegany and Cattaraugus 
for Scott. The Allegany County delegates in this conven- 
tion were Mr. Ward and S. M. Norton ; from Cattaraugus 
came O. S. Vreeland, W. S. Thresher, William G. Laidlaw 
and Frederick W. Kruse. Among the Erie delegates were 
Henry Weisenheimer, J. O. Putnam, Charles L. Feldman, 
Seward A. »Simons, Joseph E. Ewell and Myron Clark. 

Chautauqua sent Henry Case and Warren B. Hooker, 
and from Niagara came E. N. Ashley, T. E. Ellsworth and 
Eugene Cary. 

Thirty ballots were cast on the first day. 

On the second day Potter gained strength from Barker, 
when twenty-five more ballots were cast. 

The convention was then adjourned to October loth. 

On that day Mr. Ward received six votes, being the 
Allegany and Cattaraugus County votes, which had all the 
time been in his interest. Nearly one hundred ballots were 
cast on this day without any definite result, and Mr. Ward 
felt that he could not be nominated. 

The Erie County delegates determined to stand by 
Barker, and on the nth Mr. Ward's strength was thrown to 
Lambert. All of the other delegates fell in line and he was 
unanimously nominated. His canvass had been the most 
active and intelligent, and his subesquent career has amply 
justified the choice of the convention. 

After this time his relations with Mr. Ward became 



348 HAMILTON WARD. 

very close and his assistance was of great importance when 
Mr. Ward finally secured the nomination in 1891. 

The sixth provision or Judiciary article of the New- 
York State Constitution had been found inadequate to meet 
the vast and growing litigation of the Empire State, and the 
Court of Appeals especially, was clogged with business, 
therefore the State Legislature in 1890 passed Chapter 189 
of the Laws of that year, providing that the Governor 
(David B. Hill) should designate thirty-eight delegates to a 
Constitutional Convention to meet at Albany in June, to be 
selected so that neither party should have a majority, and to 
be divided among the Judicial Districts. In accordance 
wath this law the Governor, on May 8th, named the follow- 
ing delegates : 

Hon. George F. Danforth, Chairman, Rochester. 
For the First Judicial District. 

Joseph H. Choate, 52 Wall Street, New York City. 

James C. Carter, 54 Wall Street, New York City. 

Daniel G. Rollins, 32 Nassau Street, New York City. 

Elliott F. Shepard, 23 Park Row. New York City. 

William B. Hornblower, 280 Broadway, New York 
City. 

W. Bourke Cockran, 120 Broadway, New York City. 

Franklin Bartlett, 82 Times Building, New York City. 

Frederick R .Coudert, 68 William Street, New York 
City. 

For the Second Judicial District. 

George G. Reynolds, 16 Court Street. Brooklyn. 

Odle'Close, Croton Falls. 

Lewis E. Carr, Port Jervis. 

Thomas E. Pearsall. 183 Montague Street, Brooklyn. 

Calvin Frost, Peekskill. 

Plomer A. Nelson, Poughkeepsie. 

For the Third Judicial District. 

Francis H. Woods, Albany. 

Timothv F. Bush. Monticello. 

Martin I. Townsend, Troy. 

J. Newton Fiero. Kingston. 



CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION. 349 

From the Fourth Judicial District. 

S. Alonzo Kellogg-, Plattsburgh, 

Artemas B. \\'aldo. Port Henry. 

Leslie W. Russell, Canton. 

James \V. Whitman, vSandy Hill. 

For the Fifth Judicial District. 

Charles D. Adams, Utica. 

Daniel G. Griffin, Watertown. 

Fouis Marshall, Syracuse. 

Maurice L. Wright, Mexico. 

For the Sixth Judicial District. 

Francis R. Gilbert, Stamford. 

Albert C. Tennant, Coooperstown. 

Douglass Eoardman, Ithaca. 

Gabriel L. Smith, Elmira. 

For the Seventh Judicial District. 

George F. Danforth, Rochester. 

James C. Smith, Canandaigua. 

Thomas Raines, Rochester. 

Michael A. Leary, Penn Yan. 

For the Eighth Judicial District. 

Hamilton Ward, Belmont. 

George Barker, Fredonia. 

Wilson S. Bissell Buffalo. 

William C. Greene, Lockport. 

These men were the leaders of the New York State bar 
and their appointment marked the broad statesmanship of 
the Governor. 

The convention met on June 4th and the first day's pro- 
ceedings are reported by the Elmira Advertiser of the next 
day as follows: 

Albany, June 4. — The constitutional commission convened at 
10:30 o'clock this morning. Clerk Bunn read the journal of yesterday, 
■which was approved. Mr. Bartlett introduced a resolution asking for 
the reconsideration of the vote on the question fixing the next meeting 
of the commission for August 5th. 

The committee of nine, consisting of Messrs. Fiero, Hornblowcr, 
Rollins, Frost, Waldo, Adams, Gabriel L. Smith, Raines and Ward, to 
report to the commission the best method of proceeding to revise the 
judiciary article ,then submitted their report. It recommended thr 



350 HAMILTON WARD. 

ci'eation of five committees, to be appointed by the president, as fol- 
lows: A committee on Court of Appeals and court for trial of im- 
peachment for the removal of judges, to consist of nine members, 
the president of the commission to be one of its members; a commit- 
tee on the Supreme Court including the subject of referees and receiv- 
ers, to consist of nine members; a committee on Superior City Courts, 
New York County Surrogate's Courts and local inferior courts of the 
city of New York, to consist of seven members; a committee on County 
and Surrogates' Courts, Courts of Justices of the Peace and inferior 
local courts, to consist of seven members; and the fifth committee to 
consider the subject of all other courts and all other subjects em- 
braced in the sixth article, to consist of seven members. The com- 
mittee recommends that there be appointed on the reassembling of the 
commisison a committee of revision, to consist of five members. The 
number selected for the first two committees was fixed for the purpose 
of enabling each judicial district to be represented upon such commit- 
tee. The committee also recommended that members of the commis- 
sion be requested to communicate their views by resolution or other- 
wise to the several committees upon any subject connected with the 
revision of the various sections in charge of such committees, and 
recommend for passage of the following: 

Resolved, That the various committees be requested to complete 
their report and have them printed and distributed to the members of 
the commission on or before July 25. 

Mr. Fiero asked for the adoption of the report. He said but one 
committee should be named. 

Mr. Choate thought that there should not be two committees om 
Supreme Court and Superior Court in New York City. The two ques- 
tions were so closely knitted together that he could not see how the 
two committees could report separately. 

Mr. Carter thought there was no need of a committee on revision 
until the work of the commission was founded. The president also, 
by that time, would know more of the members as to their standing 
and views on the work done. 

Mr. Fiero said that if New York City were given a representa- 
tion that it needed on these two subjects .mentioned by Mr. Choate, 
it would be so large as to make the two committees unwieldy. 

Mr. Hornblower was of the opinion that the Supreme Court in 
New York City should be not a local but a State body. He therefore 
favored concentration and exchange of ideas between all the commit- 
tees on the various courts. Still the consideration of a reorganization 



CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION. 351 

of the courts in New York City and Brooklyn was undoubtedly a mat- 
ter that should be largely entrusted to New York and Brooklyn mem- 
bers. 

Mr. Russell offered a resolution transferring the consideration of 
the Supreme Court in New York City from the second committee to the 
third committee as named, the third committee having the consider- 
ation of local courts in New York City. 

Mr. Bartlett said it was not tenable to say that the Superior 
Court of New York City was local, from the fact of its general term 
having two justices appointed from other counties. He clamied that 
the first department (New York) was a part of the State supreme 
jurisdiction, and he did not want it designated as a local court. 

Mr. Russell's motion was lost by a vive voice vote and the report 
of the committee was adopted. 

A vote was then taken on Mr. Hornblower's motion to recon- 
sider the vote on the question fixing the next meeting of the commis- 
sion for August 5th. The motion was opposed by several members 
and defeated — ayes 34, noes 18. 

Mr. Whitman offered a resolution requesting the Court of Ai>- 
peals to transmit to the commission the number of appeals brought 
into that court in 18S9; the number of cases argued during that year; 
the number of cases decided during that year; the number of days the 
court was in session hearing arguments during that time; the number 
of such cases which were criminal actions and the number of such 
cases in which the complaint set forth a cause of action to recover 
damages for an injury to person and property by reason of negligence. 

The resolution was referred to the committee on Court of Ap- 
peals. The commission then took a recess for thirty minutes. 

MEN ON THE COMMITTEES. 

When the commission reconvened after the recess President 
Danforth announced the committees as follows: 

Court of Appeals — Messrs. Frost, Carter, Coudert, Russell, Mar- 
shall, Bissell, Townsend, Boardman. 

Supreme Court — Messrs. Choate, Cockran, Close, Bush, Waldo, 
Griffin, Gilbert, J. C. Smith, Ward. 

Superior City Courts — Messrs. Rollins, Hornblower, Shepard, 
Bartlett, Greene, Reynolds, Pearsall. 

County and Surrogates Courts — Messrs. Nelson, Kellogg, Wright, 
Gabriel L. Smith, Raines, Barker, and Woods. 

Miscellaneous Questions— Messrs. Fiero, Carr, Whitman, Adams, 
Tennant, Leary, Ward. 



352 HAMILTON WARD. 

President Danforth will serve only on the first committee. Mr. 
Wright offered a resolution, which was referred, providing for an 
amendment to the effect that ten votes of a local jury and five of a 
pettit jury should constitute a verdict. On Mr. Cockran's motion the 
commission then adjourned until 11 A. M. August 5th. 

Just before adjournment Mr. Ward offered a resolution, which 
was referred to the committee on Court of Appeals, which provides for 
an amendment of the constitution making the Court of Appeals consist 
of a Chief Justice and thirteen Associate Justices, seven to be elected 
and seven to be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Sen- 
ate. Of the seven to be appointed not moi-e than three shall be taken 
from the same political party. In the full court nine members shall 
constitute a quorum and eight affirmative votes are made necessary for 
a decision. The Court may divide itself into two divisions, seven 
judges in each. In either of the divided courts, six members shall con- 
stitute a quorum and five affirmative votes are made necessary to a 
decision. But if there are two dissenting votes then the matter is to 
be referred to the full court. 

The committee met after adjournment and fixed the time for 
their first meeting. The committee on Supreme Court will meet in 
Joseph H. Choate's office, New York City, June 10th. The committee 
on County and Surrogate's Courts meets in the town hall at Saratoga 
June 27th. The committee on General Subjects will meet at the Wor- 
den Hotel, Saratoga, June 30th. The committee on Superior City 
Courts will meet at Judge Rollin's office in New York City June 11th. 
The committee on Court of Appeals will meet at the Windsor Hotel in 
Saratoga July 8th. 

It will be noted that not only was Mr. Ward on the 
committee on organization, but that he was the only mem- 
ber of the convention placed on two committees. 

The Commission re-assembled on the 5th of August 
and received the reports of the committees, which were dis- 
cussed at some length. The stenographic report of the pro- 
ceeedings of the Commission has never been printed and is 
on file in the ofdce of the Secretary of State at Albany,^ 
N. Y.. but from the printed journal of the Commission it ap- 
pears that Mr. Ward was in favor of submitting to the peo- 
ple the question whether the Judges of the Court of Ap- 
peals should be appointed by the Governor or elected by the 



CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION. 353 

people. This was defeated. He also disapproved the sys- 
tem of Judicial pensions then in force but abolished by the 
Constitution of 1894. This was remarkable as at this time 
he was a candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court. He 
also approved a constitutional provision which prohibited 
the acceptance of passes by Judicial officers or members of 
their family. 

He was strongly opposed to limiting the right of appeal 
to the Court of Appeals and urged as a solution of the con- 
gested condition of that Court an increase in its member- 
ship, and not a temporary second division to be designated 
from time to time by the Governor, as was by some pro- 
posed. 

After twelve days hard work in reviewing and discuss- 
ing the reports of the various committees it was decided that 
a committee on revision should be selected, and James C. 
Carter of New York, the acknowledged leader of the New 
York Bar; George F. Danforth of Rochester, ex-Chief 
Judge of the Court of Appeals ; James C. Smith of Canan- 
daigua, ex-Supreme Court Justice ; S. Alonzo Kellogg of 
Plattsburg, later a Justice of the Supreme Court ; Homer A. 
Nelson of Poughkeepsie. and William B. Hornblower of 
New York were accordingly named. 

The Commission then adjourned to December 2nd. 

On that date they re-assembled at the rooms of the Bar 
Association in New York City, and were in session for four 
days considering and discussing the report of the committee 
on revision. Mr. Ward was present on the first day, but did 
not attend any further sessions of the Commission, as he had 
become convinced that the majority of the Commission had 
determined upon a report with which he did not agree and 
which he did not believe would be adopted either by the 
Legislature or the people. On December 5th the Commis- 
sion adjourned to January 23rd. 1891. at Albany, on which 
date. 23 members being present, the report of the commit- 
tee on revision was formallv approved and made the report 
of the Commission. The Commission then adjourned sine 
die. 



354 HAMILTON WARD. 

The proposed amendment to the Judiciary Article of 
the Constitution as adopted Hmited the right of appeal to 
the Court of Appeals in certain kinds of actions where the 
decision of the General Term was unanimous, and made the 
General Term the Court of last resort on the appeal from 
certain orders which had theretofore been appealable to the 
Court of Appeals. 

Four General Terms of the Supreme Court were to be 
established and certain city Courts in New York and Brook- 
lyn were to be abolished. It was made a violation of law 
for judicial officers to accept passes and the jurisdiction of 
County Courts was to be somewhat enlarged. 

These proposed amendments were rejected by the 
Legislature, but the discussion thereby provoked bore fruit 
in the Constitutional Convention of 1894; and the present 
Constitution in force January ist, 1895, reflects the labors of 
the Commission. 

In 1890 the Congressional District in which Mr. Ward 
resided wa* made up of the Counties of Allegany, Cattar- 
augus and Chautauqua, and a successor was to be selected 
to William G. Laidlaw, whose previous nominations Mr. 
Ward had been instrumental in securing. Laidlaw was not 
willing to return the favor, and as a result Mr. Ward com- 
bined with the Chautauqua County forces, and finally nom- 
inated Warren B. Hooker of Fredonia. 

Hooker at that time was but little known outside of his 
own county, but he was a man of great industry and excel- 
lent judgment, and acquired great power in Congress, where 
he remained four terms and until he was appointed a Justice 
of the Supreme Court in 1898. 

Mr. Ward's campaign in Allegany County to secure 
delegates in his interest was most thorough ; he knew per- 
sonally almost every voter; he knew their weaknesses and 
their strength ; he was familiar with their business affairs, 
and their personal relations, and his support came from per- 
sonal acquaintance and personal effort rather than from suc- 
cessful political mpnipukitions or the power of patronage. 



CONGRESSIONAL CONTEST 1890. 355 

The nominal candidates were D. P. Richardson of An- 
geHca and Oscar Fuller of Wellsville. 

A newspaper article prepared by Mr, Ward describes 
the contest: 

EXIT LAIDLAW. 
This interesting and peculiar statesman vanished at the recent 
Olean Congressional Convention. 

Four years ago he was nominated by the Allegany County dele- 
gates, wheeling into line after they had supported Mr. Hamilton Ward 
for Congress by many votes, and after it was apparent that a nomina- 
tion could not be effected unless Allegany went with Cattaraugus or 
Chautauqua. Allegany preferred to go with Cattaraugus, and it did so 
after profuse promises on the part of Laidlaw and his friends that he 
would reform his personal habits and would make a faithful member of 
Congress. 

When the nomination was made the Cattaraugus delegates and 
representative men were equally profuse in assuring Allegany dele- 
gates that they would return the favor thus received at the first oppor- 
tunity, and conspicuous among those thus assuring was the Hon. Wil- 
liam G .Laidlaw himself. 

Two years ago Cattaraugus again presented Mr, Laidlaw for 
Congress and Chautauqua had elected her delegates for the Hon. 
Walter L. Sessions. Allegany was called upon a second time to nom- 
inate Mr. Laidlaw, and she did so and received the same assurances 
from Laidlaw and his friends as had been received two years before. 

One year ago Allegany County was extremely anxious of secur- 
ing a Judge of the Supreme Court, and presented the name of Mr. 
Hamilton Ward to the Judicial Convention at Buffalo for that high 
office, confidently expecting the help of Cattaraugus County, or at least 
that of Mr. Laidlaw, to secure his nomination. There was no man in 
the world to whom Laidlaw and Cattaraugus was more indebted than 
to Mr. Ward. It was his friends at each of the two Congressional 
Conventions where Laidlaw was nominated that had given him the 
votes necessary to his nomination. Laidlaw was himself a delegate to 
the Judicial Convention and Allegany was surprised to find two can- 
didates for the Judgeship presented by Cattaraugus, both particular 
friends of Laidlaw, one of them Judge Scott, who was his law partner 
and had been for many years his special and particular friend. 

The Judicial Convention had several sessions and it was a great 
while before a nomination could be effected. Laidlaw professed in 
turn to be for Scott, Spring, the other Cattaraugus candidate, and for 



356 HAMILTON WARD. 

Ward, but in reality he was for none of them, but used every means to 
induce the other Cattaraugus judicial delegates to go with him and 
nominate Judge Barker. They all had the manhood to refuse to do his 
bidding, for which he was very angry. Failing to get votes enough to 
nominate Judge Barker, he contented himself when he was able to be 
in the convention and vote there, by voting for one of the Cattaraugus 
candidates or for Mr. Ward- 

At the recent Congressional Convention, though Allegany voted 
solidly for Mr. Fuller 12 times, not a Laidlaw delegate was given to 
Allegany, Laidlaw still holding his contingent for himself. 

The majority of the Allegany delegates then presented the Hon. 
D. P. Richardson, who received a number of votes, sufficient that if 
Cattaraugus voted for him, he would have been nominated, and yet not 
a Cattaraugus vote was given him, Laidlaw still holding his own vote. 

We thought as this statesman passed off the stage forever we 
would give this little history, not that we suppose it will have any 
effect upon Laidlaw, who seems conscious neither of gratitude or politi- 
cal honor, but that it may be an admonition to some of our aspiring 
politicians who want to fill the high places in the land that they can- 
not do so by tricks, political frauds and broken promises, but that in 
the end honorable and manly conduct is the only certain course to win 
permanent political success. 

Mr. Hooker was nominated by the Allegany County 
votes and Chautauqua County was under another obHgation 
to Mr. Ward. 

Many of the men who battled for political supremacy 
in Allegany County in these days following the Civil War 
are forgotten ; of course, the lives of Martin Grover. Mar- 
shall Ciiamplain, Dr. William Smith, David P. Richardson. 
A. J. Wellman and Sumner Baldwin are part of the history 
of the county, but each township had and still has keen, 
active, intelligent men who took part in every struggle, 
partly from sheer love of the thing, partly for the party 
emoluments and partly from a sense of duty, the crowning 
glory of good citizenship. Such men were Mr. Ward's sup- 
porters and associates through the long years of his political 
career, and in endeavoring to preser^^e his memory their 
names are entitled to a like consideration. There was An- 
son Congdon, Marcus Congdon, Thomas Love and Irving 



NAMES OF OLD FRIENDS. 357 

Bellamy of Clarksville; Hunt Morgan, Rufus Caldwell 
and William J. Glenn of Cuba; A. J. Wellman, Asher 
W. Miner, Williamking, Herman Rice, S. M. Norton 
and William Dayton of Friendship; Christopher Jen- 
nings, Father Barlow, Bowman Renwick and James Davis 
of Belfast; William E. Hammond and Charles Burr of Can- 
aedea ; John Hammond, John Minard, Joseph Paul, William 
Brooks, Charles Van Dresser, H. H. Relya and Charles 
Ricker of Hume; John Sawyer, T. J. Findley and David 
Hancock of Centerville; Charles Woodruff and Henry 
Holden of Rushford ; Nathaniel Bell, Addison Thompson 
and Clarence Ricker of New Hudson ; William Van Ostrand 
of Granger ; Archie Gillis of Birdsall ; William Windsor, Wil- 
liam H. Garwood and Dr. Bacon of Burns; Henry Burt of 
Allen. Charles Flenigan, Wilkes Angel, Joseph Gillis and 
Joseph Rutherford of Angelica ; Dr. Sabins, Owen Baker 
and ^^'illiam Miller of West Almond; A. Crandall, William 
and Silas Burdick and Calvin Reynolds of Alfred; Charles 
Hull, Charles Mcintosh and D. A. Stebbins of Almond; Dr. 
Harmon, George Green, Blin Clark and W. W. Crandall of 
Andover; William Cobb, Sidney Crandall and Deacon Chase 
of Independence ; Daniel Witter and Lewis Ackerman of 
Willing; Martin Strickland and Riley Allen of Alma; Wil- 
liam Duke, R. T. Howard. Myron Davis. Ebenezer Nor- 
ton, John Hyde and J. E. Middaugh of Scio; William F. 
Jones, Sumner Baldwain, Isaac Fassett, William McEwan 
and George Blackman of Wellsville ; Boardman Cottrell and 
Hiram Dimmick of Wirt ; Le Grand Andrus and Charles H. 
Brown of BoHver. and Isaac Prosser, William Boiler, Hor- 
ace Prindle and William Cranston of Genesee. 

Politics in the rural districts have alwa)^s occupied a 
higher level than in the cities, and in Allegany County the 
best citizens have in the past not been ashamed to give their 
best energies to public affairs, so that the party leaders were 
those who stood highest in the community, and county and 
Stnte politics furnished a field for those energies which vrere 
too broad and strong for the peaceful current of village and 
farm life. 



358 HAMILTON WARD. 

Mr. Ward's time was always occupied. He was not 
fond of loafing; occasionally he took a short vacation, going 
generally to the seashore, where he could hear the sound of 
the waves ; water always fascinated him and he was wont to 
walk for hours upon the bridge at Belmont across the Gene- 
see River, where he could hear the riffles. He made it a 
rule to walk five miles a day, and that was his favorite 
method of exercise, except in the springtime, when he en- 
joyed working in the garden. Love of natural scenery al- 
ways possessed him, and almost every day he would climb 
the hill west of the village, and from its slopes gaze over the 
beautiful valley and opposing mountains ,raident with the 
hues of autumn, glowing green with the spring, or dazzling 
with the snows of winter, as the seasons came and went, 
and whether alone or in company with one of his sons, 
whom he frequently took with him on these walks, he was 
wont to give expression to his pleasurable emotions in recit- 
ing some of the many poems of his favorite poets, of which 
his mind held an abundant store. 

He was a good swimmer, but took no interest in other 
sports; he never hunted or fished, and seldom attended 
trials of strength or skill. The only game he enjoyed was 
euchre, which he frequently played before retiring. 

He read much poetry and Byron,; Scott, Burns and 
Whittier were his favorites; he was fond of reading aloud, 
and had a well modulated and expressive voice. Greek my- 
thology delighted him, and he read and re-read the poems 
of Homer. He was especially familiar with the stories of 
Scott, Thackery. Dickens and Irving, and his general read- 
ing covered fairly well the field of English literature. 

Scientific subjects had no charm for him, and he de- 
voted no time to Theology or Metaphysics. His sense of 
humor was always keen, and his jokes and anecdotes made 
him famous. He always showed great courtesy to women, 
and delighted to help a young man. His manner was orig- 
inal and buoyant, and his conversation was always enter- 
taining. Deep chested and of considerable bodily strength, 
his erect carriage gave a much greater impression of his 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 359 

heighth than it really was (five feet seven inches). His 
weight in later life ranged about 170 and up to the time of 
his death his sturdy, youthful bearing was the subject of 
common comment. 

He never seemed tired and was seldom ill, and during 
his whole life he welcomed each new task, opportunity or 
duty, and with unfaltering courage and constant industry. 
Against much adversity and in spite of many defeats, lived a 
long life honorably and well. 

Of the business, Mr. Elba Reynolds, who entered Mr. 
Ward's office as a student in 1874 ,and who remained with 
him until he went on the bench, and w^ho then succeeded 
him in his practice, says: 

"Mr. Ward always had the best practice in the village 
and in later years in the county. He was an indefatigable 
worker and it was no uncommon thing for him to remain in 
his office working over his cases until three and four o'clock 
in the morning ; he never was unprepared and every fact and 
witness was carefully discussed and investigated. He gen- 
erally know more about his adversary's case than he did 
himself, and to his quality of industry and thoroughness his 
success at the bar was largely due. 

His professional income was his sole support, and when 
I first went into his office ranged between $2,000.00 and 
$3,000.00 per year ; this gradually increased until during the 
oil excitement it ran to $8,000.00 for a couple of years; dur- 
ing the later eighties it ranged about $5,000.00 per year. 

Mr. Ward was liberal with his money and never laid up 
any substantial sum until after he had been Attorney-Gen- 
eral, from which time he tried to save something each year. 
His business was principally litigated business, and he was 
on one side or the other of most all the hard fought cases in 
the county for thirty years. He had few mortgage fore- 
closures and little Surrogate's practice, most of that going 
to other attorneys who were not called "high priced." but 
whenever complicated issues were to be determined Mr. 
"V\'^ard was generally retained. 

His re<?-ister showed about forty new cases venrlv. :\v.<:\ 



360 HAMILTON WARD. 

most of those were hard fought ones. While he was always 
active in politics his best energies were given to his profes- 
sion ,and his great strength was before a jury. 

His principal rival was Horace Bemis, of Hornellsvillc, 
who opposed him in the Hendryx and Macken cases and 
other important litigations. 

Most of the work in the office was done by students, 
and it was esteemed a privilege to be allowed to enter his 
office as a student. Among the students were E. W. Cham- 
berlain, Ben Marriott, Robert Marriott, Rufus Scott, W. C. 
Bingham, S. M. Norton, Oscar Fuller, Henry Gardner, Elba 
Reynolds, A. L. Elliott, Ira H. Meyers, Eldyn Reynolds, 
Warren Gorton, Henry G. Middaugh and Hamilton Ward, 

Jr. 

Mr. Ward's handwriting was typical of his profession, 
and much of the students' time was taken up (in the days 
before typewriters) in an effort to decipher it. 

On one occasion a young man named Scott entered the 
office as a student, and his first work was to copy a com- 
plaint which Mr. Ward had just written; all the afternoon 
he puzzled over it and the next day he fretted and strove, 
and on the third morning was missing, never to resume the 
study of law nor to complete the copy of the curiously writ- 
ten paper. 

Mr. Ward's political interest was always keen, not only 
in local matters, but in the broad affairs of the nation, in 
which he had played so important a part in Congress. 

After his return from Congress he exercised a pre- 
ponderating influence in the county politics until he became 
Attorney-General. After that, for a few years, his friends 
were in the minority, but in 1885 he regained control and re- 
tained it until he went on the bench. 

Of the period before 1870 I have no personal knowl- 
edge, but local history says that Mr. Ward was the dom- 
inant political factor in the county from the date of his elec- 
tion as District Attorney in 1857, and it is a notable fact that 
in all his political contests he never lost his town (Amit}^). 

His political success depended entirely on his personal 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 361 

influence; he could strengthen a fahering friend or convince 
a stubborn antagonist better than any man 1 have ever 
known, and a conference ahvays made friends for him. 

He was a great behever in night vists to his pohtical 
friends and every road in Allegany County has known his 
hurrying wheels on a midnight visit to a local leader. 

He was keen in his sympathies and naturally took the 
side of the humble and afflicted, and those who knew him 
longest liked him best." 

Mr. W. Ellery Davis, now of Starke, Florida, who 
formerly resided in Belmont, and was Mr. Ward's stenogra- 
pher and confidential man in the Attorney-General's of^ce, 
in a letter of February 25, 1901, in speaking of Mr. Ward, 
says: 

"He was a man that was liked by every man, woman 
and child that chanced to form his acquaintance, except 
when an enemy was made, as the result of some legal or 
political battle ; for he was never in too great a hurry to fail 
to recognize all, whether they be rich or poor — old or 
young. 

Old Bridget Egan would get a hearty hand-shake from 
your father when she met him on the street, and would be 
so delighted that she would never get tired of talking about 
it. This was no put on — it was his nature to be courteous 
and gentlemanly to all. Some men shake hands before elec- 
tion times, out of policy, but not so with your father. 

He would never turn down an old friend for a new one, 
and could always be relied upon by his friends — and right 
here I might say that his enemies could rely upon him as 
well ; they knew him, too, and dreaded him. He never 
would never give up — legally — until the last dog was hung 
— and has many times furnished the necessary funds for ap- 
peals where poor clients were unable to do so — and continue 
the fight rather than give up. From a political standpoint 
T don't believe he ever gave up. ****** 

It was told to me by good authority that in the case of 
Porter K. Holden of Belmont, who had been a faithful Ward 
politician, and was working at the machine shop, in the 



362 HAMILTON WARD. 

wood-working department, or some factory there — at a time 
when your father was in Congress — that he had Mr. Holden 
appointed postal clerk and never said one word to him about 
it until he had his appointment in his coat pocket. When 
he received the appointment, he sent a messenger to the 
shops asking Mr. Holden to step over to his office a few 
moments if he could leave his position. Mr. Holden ap- 
peared on the scene in old clothes, covered with sawdust 
from head to foot, wondering what in the world he could be 
wanted for at a lawyer's office — and was asked how he would 
Hke to run on the Erie Road as Postal Clerk. He repHed 
that he would be very glad indeed for the position if he could 
get it, and asked if your father thought there would be any 
chance for him to get the place. Your father told him he 
thought it quite certain that he could get the place, and 
then handed him the appointment, and told him he must re- 
port at Elmira (I think it was) the following Monday. 

At another time, when we were in Albany, a large red- 
headed Irishman came to the ofhce and asked to be appoint- 
ed as one of the Orderlies on the Capitol. His clothes were 
rather old and seedy — his hair and full chin whiskers ex- 
ceedingly long and unkempt — his finger nails very long, and 
in fact his general appearance was that of a genuine hobo. 
The day before Senator Harris of Albany had arranged 
with your father to put one of his men in the position asked 
for and told what time he would have him call. The time 
agreed precisely with the arrangement made by Senator 
Harris, and after asking the party a few questions, told him 
he could have the place and to report to him the next day at 
lo A. M. With eyes that shone like two diamonds the 
ofifice-seeker departed happier than any U. S. Senator-elect 
ever was. Within one hour from his departure came Sen- 
ator Harris' man. Your father was in a boat, so to speak; 
he had promised the same office to two different parties. 
Well, he informed the last man that he could have the place, 
and told him to report the next day. as he told the first. 
Now I am into it, says he, but I'll not disappoint either — I 
will put Senator Harris' man just where I promised the Sen- 
ator I would and will make a place for the red-headed Irish- 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 363 

man from Troy. He sent me to Supt. Eaton, of the New 
Capitol, and after some little talk, a place was provided. 
Exactly at the appointed time the Irishman appeared, but 
changed as if by magic — quite well dressed — hair nicely 
trimmed) — whiskers neatly clipped and looking exceedingly 
well. He held his position for a long time and gave good 
satisfaction. 

A Justice of the Supreme Court was to be selected in 
1891 to succeed the fanious Charles Daniels, and Mr. Ward's 
whole energy was directed toward securing the coveted 
nomination. Daniels was not a candidate as he was 66 
years of age, and the usual struggle began for the place with 
practically the same candidates as in 1889 in Niagara and 
Cattaraugus, with Chautauqua supporting Mr. Ward, and 
Erie disposed to favor Manley C. Green. 

In April, 1891, Thomas Corlett suddenly died, and after 
a decent delay, David B. Hill, the Democratic Governor of 
the State, named Hamilton Ward to succeed him. This ap- 
pointment, which was made on the 28th day of April, caused 
much surprise, and aspiring Democrats in Buffalo and else- 
where waxed wroth because one of their own party had not 
been selected. 

It was generally conceded that the appointment be- 
longed to th'^ 34th Congressional District, and practically 
all the Democrats of that district asked for Mr. Ward's ap- 
pointment. Clarence A. Farnham of Wellsville was gener- 
ally regarded as the Democrat likely to succeed, but he gen- 
erously declined to enter the contest and urged Mr. Ward's 
appointment on the Governor. Great assistance in secur- 
ing the Democratic support was also rendered by Edgar W. 
Chamberlain and Elba Reynolds of Belmont. 

The Democrats took this position because Mr. Ward's 
appointment meant his probable nomination and election, 
while the appointment of a Democrat would be but a tem- 
porary benefit to that section, his successor being certain to 
be a Republican, with a likelihood of his residing outside of 
the district. 

Another reason that contributed to this result was the 
firm personal friendship which existed between Mr. Ward 



364 HAMILTON WARD. 

and the Governor, who was a resident of Chemung County, 
and who in former days had received some small favors at 
Mr. Ward's hands. 

William F. Sheehan, of Erie, Lieutenant-Governor, and 
Democratic leader of Western New York, was also friendly 
to Mr. Ward, and Charles Gary and Judge Henderson, 
Democratic leaders at the bar and in politics in Cattaraugus, 
supported him. 

Comments on his nomination by the press were uni- 
versally friendly. The world admires a fighter, and this Mr. 
Ward had emphatically been, and when this appointment 
came it indicated that the long fight was over and that his 
declining years would be passed in pleasant and congenial 
work on the bench for which his varied experience and ma- 
ture years qualified him. 

Press comments are as follows. 

Buffalo Evening News : 

GEN. WARD NOMINATED. 

Word comes from Albany that Governor Hill has nominated Gen- 
eral Hamilton Ward to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court bench 
caused by the death of Justice Corlett, but the continua,nce of the Sen- 
ate deadlock has prevented any action being yet taken on the name. 
Friends of a number of prominent Buffalo attorneys have been hopeful 
of lightning striking in this neighborhood, but territorial considerations 
have governed and the Executive has seen fit to give recognition to the 
lower part of the district. 

There Mall naturally be some disappointment felt here over the 
result, but it will be generally conceded that the selection is a worthy 
and creditable one. For many years General Ward has held place In 
the front rank of Western New York attorneys, combining with high 
legal attainments a long and varied experience at the bar. He was 
admitted upwards of 40 years ago, was elected District Attorney of 
Allegany County in 1856 and again elected in 1862. Subsequently he 
served in the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first Congress, and In 
1879 was elected Attorney-General of the State. Of late years his 
name has frequently been mentioned in connection with judiciary nom- 
inations and he was put forward as the candidate of Allegany County 
at the convention which named Justice Lambert. 

While he has always been a staunch Republican, it is understood 
that General Ward's nomination was earnestly urged by Democrats 



APPOINTMENT TO THE BENCH. 365 

and Republicans alike in Cattaraugus and Allegany counties, where he 
Is regarded as the leader of the bar. 

The leading Democratic paper, the Buffalo Courier, 
said: 

WHY GOVERNOR HILL CHOSE A REPUBLICAN TO SUCCEED 
CORLETT. 

The announcement that Governor Hill had appointed the Hon. 
Hamilton Ward of Belmont, Allegany County, to succeed the late Jus- 
tice Corlett on the bench of the Supreme Court has created quite a 
stir among politicians and lawyers in Buffalo. Expressions of opinion 
by some of the lawyers were rather guarded, and several asked to be 
excused. 

It seems clear that the new Justice by appointment is personally 
popular, and that there was a strong desire among the people of Cat- 
taraugus and Allegany counties for the selection of a Justice from that 
part of the district. Judge Henderson and the Hon. Charles Cary are 
mentioned as two of the leading lawyers from that region who favored 
the appointment of Mr. Ward. Their argument is that in view of the 
fact that Allegany and Cattaraugus counties have not had a Justice of 
the Supreme Court for SO years, and that someone residing on the line 
of the Erie Railroad, which passes through these counties, was much 
needed, and the further fact of the persistent neglect of the Republican 
Judicial Convention to nominate a Justice from that part of the dis- 
trict, the people of these counties had become aroused, and properly 
demanded of the Governor the appointment of one of their neighbors. 
They presented the name of Hamilton Ward, and their claims seem to 
have been recognized. 

It is said there was no Democratic candidate for the office from 
these counties. The reason given is that if a Democrat should be ap- 
pointed he could hold the office but a short time, some Republican being 
sure of an election next fall. 

Justice Ward was in the city yesterday and registered at room 
No. 68 in the Hotel Iroquois. 

He was busy receiving the congratulations of friends, but freely 
talked about the circumstances which led to his selection by the 
Governor. 

"How is it," he was asked, "that you, a Republican, have been 
appointed by a Democratic Governor for the office of Supreme Court 
Justice?" 

The Hon. Hamilton Ward laughed quietly as he answered: "I 
suppose it is due to the fact that the members of the bar in Allegany 



366 HAMILTON WARD. 

County, and a number of leading Democrats of Cattaraugus County, 
asked the appointment from Governor Hill on the ground of my loca- 
tion, and that there was no Democrat who sought the appointment 
from either of these counties, so far as I know. The appointment was 
made without reference to political considerations, but to secure a Su- 
preme Court Justice in a portion of this judicial district where he was 
most needed." 

Mr. Ward said further that the need of a Justice from that part 
of the district was emphasized by the increasing volume of litigation 
there, connected with the oil business. 

A number of prominent lawyers of both parties were visited 
yesterday, and the same question put to each : "What do you think of 
the Governor's appointment of a successor to Justice Corlett?" 

From those who were willing to talk, the following answers were 
received: 

Franklin D. Locke — "I think the appointment is very fitting, in- 
deed. Locally, I think the southern tier of counties in the district is 
entitled to be represented on the bench, and it has not been since 
Martin Grover's time. Personally, Hamilton Ward is an exceedingly 
able, capable lawyer, and has, in my judgment, all the qualifications 
requisite to make an excellent judge." 

The Hon. Daniel N. Lockwood: "I have known Gen. Ward for 
20 years. He is a good lawyer, and a straightforward, upright man, 
and will make a most excellent judge." 

Harlow C. Curtiss: "Inasmuch as the district is Republican by 
a normal majority of 12,000, I regard it as very fair in Governor Hill to 
appoint a Republican, and certainly, as Buffalo has three judges of the 
six in the district, it is fitting that one should be taken from the east- 
ern end. As Allegany County is very difficult of access, and has not 
had a resident Supreme Court Justice since Martin Grover's time, more 
than 30 years ago, I think she was entitled to the judgeship, and as 
Hamilton Ward is the leading lawyer of the county, I regard his ap- 
pointment as admirable in every respect, and most fitting." 

Frank M. Loomis: "I don't know Mr. Ward personally, and have 
no fault to find with the location of the appointment. I can see no 
reason, however, why a Democrat should not have received the ap- 
pointment. I should like to have seen Mr. Gorham chosen.' 

William F. Mackey: "I think a Democrat should have been ap- 
pointed. 

Herbert P. Bissell: "I am very much disappointed that a Buf- 
falo Democrat was not selected." 



APPOINTMENT TO THE BENCH. 367 

"Wilson S. Bissell: "I had fully expected the appointment of an 
Erie County Democrat, either Mr. Gorham or Judge Peck. Therefore 
I am surprised to hear of the appointment of an Allegany County Re- 
publican." 

Adelbert Moot: "Hamilton Ward has been considered one of 
the ablest lawyers in that region for at least 20 years. These counties 
are certainly entitled to a Justice of the Supreme Court, and to relief 
from the vexation and expense to which suitors are now subjected in 
sending lawyers to Buffalo every time they want to get an order from 
a Justice of the Supreme Court or make a motion before him. I know 
that locality well, and I think the people there all have confidence in 
Ward's integrity and ability as a lawyer, whatever they may think 
about him politically." 

Joseph L. Fairchild: "Governor Hill couldn't have made an ap- 
pointment that would have suited me so well." 

The Buffalo Times (Democratic) said editorially : 

APPOINTMENT OF GEN. WARD. 
In appointing Gen. Hamilton Ward of Allegany County to be 
Judge of the Supreme Court, filling the vacancy caused by the death of 
Judge Corlett, Governor Hill shows his appreciation of the qualities 
needed for this high position. His action also will meet the approval 
of the bar, of which Gen. Ward is a conspicuous member in this dis- 
trict. Gen. Ward is a prominent Republican, having been District At- 
torney of Allegany County and elected Attorney-General in 1879. As 
partisanship does not or should not enter into consideration for qualifi- 
cations of our judiciary, Gov. Hill promptly selects a judge irrespective 
of those considerations and there can be no doubt the Senate will as 
promptly confirm the appointment and give to the Cattaraugus section 
its rightful representation on the bench. 

The Buffalo Commercial said editorially: 

TO SUCCEED JUDGE CORLETT. 
Governor Hill has appointed a Republican to fill the office of 
Supreme Court Judge made vacant by the death of Judge Corlett, and 
has appointed Hon. Hamilton Ward of Allegany County. We commend 
his independence of party spirit. He was influenced to this act we 
understand by the urgent request of the leading Democratic lawyers 
of Allegany and Cattaraugus counties as well as by Republicans in 
those counties, who insisted upon a Judge in that section of the dis- 
trict and who presented Mr. Ward as having the required ability and 



368 HAMILTON WARD. 

the right location for the office. Neither of these counties has had a 
Supreme Court Judge for the last twenty years and great dissatisfac- 
tion has existed in that part of the district on that account; so much 
so that when Judge Corlett was elected it was by a greatly reduced 
majority; those two counties, though strongly Republican, gave Mr. 
Carey, the Democratic candidate, nine thousand majority. There was 
no objection to Judge Corlett; but the protest was against locating 
another Judge in Buffalo when it had already three. 

Governor Hill has acted wisely in appointing a Republican to 
the vacant judgeship, for the Republicans have a very large majority 
in this judicial district; and in selecting General Ward Governor Hill 
has certainly honored a man who has been earnest, steadfast and self- 
sacrificing in devotion to the cause of the Republican party in State 
and Nation. The appointment is certainly in every way commendable 
— it puts a well-qualified man upon the bench, it gracefully recognizes 
the predominance of the Republican allegiance in the district. It Is an 
appointment that will be endorsed without regard to party throughout 
Western New York with unqualified praise. 

The Farmers' Alliance organ, representing an element 
then of some strength in the district, said : 

WELL MERITED HONORS FOR THE ALLEGANY COUNTY 
JURIST. 
Below we give a brief sketch of the life of ex-Attorney-General 
Hamilton Ward, the able and efficient jurist whom Governor Hill re- 
cently appointed to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Bench of this State. 
Mr. Ward'is career while serving as Attorney-General was especially 
marked by work in behalf of the great masses of the common people of 
the State as against the pecuniary interests of certain great corpor- 
ations, ring pullers and monopolists who, as usual, brought their influ- 
ence and money to bear politically (in his own party) to defeat him 
for a renomination. He had offended the powers that be and it finally 
remained for a Democratic Governor to appoint him to his present posi- 
tion which he so well merited at the hands of his own party. 

Friendly notices of similar tenor appeared in all parts of 
the State. There was some trouble in the State Senate over 
the confirmation of the Governor's appointment, and the 
Senate, which was Republican, finally adjourned without 
taking action. The appointment was renewed as a recess 
appointment, and Mr. Ward took his oath of office on May 

I St. 



APPOINTMENT TO THE BENCH. 369 

Mr. Ward and his friends were much disappointed over 
the action of the Senate, and Senator Jacobs, who had been 
responsible for the obstruction, wrote Mr. Ward the follow- 
ing- letter, which was given to the press and offset the effect 
of the Senate's action : 

"Hon. Hamilton Ward. 

My dear Sir: — You may have been surprised at my apparent 
opposition to the confirmation of your nomination for Judge of the 
Supreme Court, on the last day — I might say the last minute of the 
session. 

There was no real opposition to your confirmation, but the fail- 
ure of a committee to report a candidate for another ofl3ce favorably, 
led to a controversy which lasted until the hour of final adjournment, 
and we were compelled by the inexorable law of time, to separate with- 
out action on your nomination. 

My personal relations with you, my gratification at your selec- 
tion, my knowledge of your high qualifications for the ofBce, all prove 
that in my action on that occasion, my last thought was to do you any 
injustice. 

Let me say that I have found, after personal inquiry, that had 
there been time to take a vote, every Senator, without regard to party, 
would have voted for your confirmation. Senator Hawkins, I am sure, 
was governed by the same motives which controlled my action. I 
congratulate you upon your subsequent appointment by Governor Hill, 
and expect that his action, now, will be endorsed by the people next 
fall. 

This letter may be used by you in any way you deem proper. 
Yours truly, 

JOHN JACOBS." 

The New York Sun of May ist reported the proceed- 
ings in the Senate as follows : 

The Governor's appointments accumulated on the desk were 
tackled at the last minute. George L. Ingraham was confirmed for 
the Supreme Court bench, in place of Brady, deceased, as were the re- 
appointed trustees for the Willard Asylum, the "Washington Headquar- 
ers, and the Western House of Refuge for Women. 

Then Senator Jacobs inspired Senator Hawkins to object to the 



370 HAMILTON WARD. 

confirmation of Hamilton Ward for the Corlett Supreme Court vacancy. 
The name of a constituent of Senator Hawkins, Henry A. Reeves, was 
among those sent in for reappointment as Lunacy Commissioner, and 
as the Republicans had made up their minds not to vote for his con- 
firmation, Senator Jacobs was showing the Long Island sailor Senator 
how to get even. He took the floor and battled against Fassett, who 
was furious, and Erwin, who was howling mad, in support of Senator 
Hawkins' right to object to the confirmation. Fassett said that the 
attitude of a bandit did not become the Senator from the Second, and 
Erwin roared: "It's two for one, it's two for one," meaning that In 
the confirmation of Ward the Republicans would get only one, while 
the Democrats were looking for the confirmation of a Health Officer as 
well as that of Judge Ingraham. 

Senator Jacobs retorted that he would play bandit or anything 
else to help the old man out, which was an affectionate reference to 
Senator Hawkins. He added: "It lacks only six minutes to 12 and I 
will hold the floor." He did so, and the Senate session died as it did 
last year without any committees of notification to the Assembly or to 
the Governor, without any complimentary resolutions or official fare- 
well speeches. 

Mr. Ward immediately returned to Belmont and re- 
ceived the congratulations of his friends and neighbors. 
The Belmont Dispatch refers to it as follows (May 5th) : 

JUDGE WARD SERENADED. 
His Allegany County Friends Surprise Him. 

Hon. Hamilton Ward returned home Saturday morning from 
Albany, where he had been to take the constitutional oath of office 
before the Secretary of State, as Justice of the Supreme Court. 

He was met at the depot by a large number of friends, who 
warmly congratulated him and gave him a most friendly greeting. On 
his way from the depot to his office he was cordially grasped by the 
hand and welcomed by all who met him. 

In the evening the Judge happened into The Belmont, and while 
he was there Belmont's citizens, headed by the band, called on him en 
masse. All were invited into the lobby, where scores of friends from 
neighboring towns had assembled, to congratulate Belmont's popular 
and noted citizen, His Honor, Judge Ward. 

Elba Reynolds, in behalf of the citizens of Belmont, warmly con- 
gratulated the honorable gentleman upon his appointment, paying him 
many handsome and well deserved compliments. 



371 

In behalf of the citizens of the county remarks were made by 
District Attorney Brown, Gen. Rufus Scott, ex-District Attorney O .A. 
Fuller, Capt. George H. Blackman and Frank B. Church, Esq. Judge 
Ward made a feeling reply to all, the band discoursed several selec- 
tions, and it was a grand congratulatory meeting. 

Clark Bros, did their share towards making the evening's pro- 
gram a success, by placing two arc lamps in front of Judge Ward's 
residence, making a beautiful electric illumination. 

All the gentlemen that spoke said that Mr. Ward's appointment 
was just, and merely gave to him and to Allegany County their just 
deserts. 

Judge Ward's friends are legion! 



CHAPTER IX. 
On tKe BencH. 

As a Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Ward's nomin- 
ation at the convention which was to be held in the fall, de- 
pended to some extent on his judicial record up to that time, 
as well as upon his well known and established position at the 
bar, and also upon his success in securing delegates and 
forming political combinations, and he bent himself to every 
duty with his accustomed zeal. 

His first Court opened in Mayville. Chautauqua County, 
in May, where he gave satisfaction to the critical Chautau- 
qua County bar. 

The following anecdote was told of him at a trial at this 
session, which is typical. One of the counsel was eulogizing 
a Union soldier, and opposing counsel objected to the state- 
ment as irrelevant. Judge Ward said : "A Union soldier is 
entitled to honorable mention at all times and in all places." 
Upon this Horace Greeley ,one of the jurors and a nephew 
of the great Greeley, whispered to a neighboring juror 
"That Judge is a loyal man, if he is a Democrat." The 
Court lasted two weeks. The Mayville Sentinel said of it : 

Judge Hamilton Ward, recently appointed in the place of Judge 
Corlett, deceased, closed the May Circuit here last Saturday afternoon, 
after a session of two weeks, during which much business was trans- 
acted. The way in which he addressed the juries and passed upon the 
questions that came up before him, showed him to be a man of ability 
and experience; while his pleasant manners, both upon and off the 
bench, won him many friends. 

From Mayville Judge Ward went to Little Valley and 
held the May term of the Cattaraugus Court. This Court 
lasted for two weeks, and the Olean Times of May 26th 
spoke of it as follows : 

Judge Ward appears to be taking naturally to the exactions of 
his new position. He is ready and affable, and his decisions are given, 
promptly and with an air of confidence which betokens commendable 




^^-5^:^^i.W^/^-c.o /^X-^^^^-^ 



1895 



t 



FIRST COURTS. 373 

familiarity with the law and with the rules of evidence. At the Chau- 
tauqua Circuit, which he closed last week, he won unstinted praise 
from both the press and the bar, and it is fair to predict for him in- 
creasing popularity. 

Then came two weeks of Erie County Special Term work 
and then the Genesee Circuit. Mr. Ward had some friends 
in Genesee County. R. T. Howard, an ex-AlIeganian, Hved 
there, and George Bowen and WilHam C. Watson, leaders of 
the bar, were friendly, however, as Genesee had a candidate 
of her own, County Judge North, it was hardly expected 
that her delegates would favor Mr. Ward, nevertheless in 
the two weeks' term held in Batavia, Mr. Ward substantially 
captured the county. Judge North himself became one of 
Mr. Ward's supporters. Speaking of this Court the Ba- 
tavia News of June 27th said : 

Judge Ward, in the two weeks he has been holding court in 
Batavia, has made many friends, not only acquiring new ones among 
members of the bar, but in other circles. Off the bench he is a jolly 
man, good-natured and with a fund of humor, while in the court room 
he is dignified and attentive to business, though never lacking in court- 
esy. His disposition to clean up the calendar as far as possible, never 
minding personal discomfort, has created a good impression, and "the 
lawyers and laymen," to quote one of the latter, "are agreed that Gov- 
ernor Hill's choice was a wise one." 

"Soon after I moved into Allegany County," remarked the Hon. 
Hamilton Ward, Justice of the Supreme Court by favor of Governor 
Hill and who expects to be elected next fall, "I was elected one of the 
delegates to the Judicial Convention which was held in Buffalo. My 
associate was 'Bill,' a happy-go-lucky fellow, who reached Buffalo be- 
fore I did. But as he had the credentials I was anxious to find him, so 
proceeded at once ot look him up, discovering him finally in one of the 
hotels. And he was a sight! Not over-particular anyway in the mat- 
ter of dress, he that day seemed more than usually careless and, to 
cap it all, he wore on his face a patch that covered a boil, and it didn't 
cover the boil alone but the whole cheek. And it was the color of the 
middle of the street. Before convention time I urged him to get a 
clean patch and he agreed to, but all he did was to slap a piece of clean 
cloth, with frayed edges, over the old patch. You can imagine how he 
looked! 



374 HAMILTON WARD. 

"In the convention the Secretary asked me which district of 
Allegany we represented. I replied that I had lived there but a short 
time and didn't know the number, but that it was the South district. 
'Well,' said the Secretary, calling on 'Bill,' 'perhaps the gentleman be- 
hind that patch can tell?' But 'Bill' couldn't, and the expression on 
his face as he said so, with the whole convention staring at him was 
not happy." 

Part of July and August were spent by Mr. Ward at the 
Erie Special Term. At this time law business in Buffalo 
was tremendous and one day's Special Term work in August 
is referred to in a Buffalo paper as follows (Courier, Aug. 7, 
1891): 

There were few busier men in the city yesterday than Justice 
Hamilton Ward of the Supreme Court. When he opened up for busi- 
ness yesterday morning nearly 100 lawyers greeted him. They all had 
some business which required his sanction, and he found it necessary 
to take them in the big room of the court. The rush was the outcome 
cf holding court on Mondays only during August. 

"Buffalo has enough law business for a city of half a million 
people," said the Justice. "I handed down 13 decisions to-day, and 
listened to 85 motions. Our law business is growing with remarkable 
rapidity." 

Full of years and experience Judge Ward did not have 
to entreat the public's patience at the commencement of his 
career or secure his judicial education at the expense of the 
State ; he was ready for work and he enjoyed it. The politi- 
cal situation had been changing in Erie County. E. W. 
Hatch, who was a candidate, withdrew and the contest was 
between Manly C. Green and Tracy C. Becker. In Chau- 
tauqua County Mr. Ward's friends, led by Warren B. 
Hooker, were active and in August elected instructed Ward 
delegates from both Assembly Districts. 

In Allegany County all factions were united and on mo- 
tion of W. J. Glen, Chas. H. Brown and D. P. Richardson 
were elected delegates and instructed for Mr. Ward. Cattar- 
augus, never generous to him, elected delegates for Alfred 
Spring. An effort was made to instruct all of the 30th 



JUDICIAL CONTEST, 1891. 375 

Congressional District delegates for Potter, but Genesee 
defeated this plan and elected William C. Watson and F. W. 
Heddon, delegates favorable to Mr. Ward. Green carried 
four out of five Erie County districts, and had eight votes, 
Tracy Becker having the other two. 

The convention met on Friday, September 19th, and 
Norris Morey of Erie was named as Chairman. 

The following delegates were in attendance in addition 
to those already named : 

Niagara County, ist District, T. E. Ellsworth, E. M. 
Ashley; 2nd District, Eugene Carey, J. S. Rowe. 

(Orleans County, E. L. Pitts. Edwin L. Wage. 

Wyoming County, E. M. Bartlett, H. Olin. 

Cattaraugs, ist District, F. W. Higgins, C. D. Van 
Aernam. ; 2nd District, O. S. Vreeland, James Johnson. 

Chautauqua, ist, District, Jerome B. Fisher. L. H. 
Sterns ; 2nd District, A. B. Ottoway, H. A. Case. 

Erie. 1st District, John J. Hynes, Freelon ChafYee; 2nd 
District. John R. Hazel, Charles Weber; 3rd District, Norris 
Morey, Emory P. Close ; 4th District, W. N. Cummings, 
Warren Himt ; 5th District, E. K. Emery, E. M. Pierce. 

The Buffalo Express of the next day contains the fol- 
lowing account of the proceedings : 

The Republican Judicial Convention for the Eighth District did 
its work with neatness and dispatch. Notwithstanding that there 
were two judgeships to be awarded, there was no deadlock and scarce- 
ly a struggle. The prizes fell to Manly C. Green of Buffalo and Hamil- 
ton Ward of Belmont, Allegany County. 

Mr. Green's friends claim that he has the making of a great 
judge in him. It rests with himself to develop the possibility. It is 
his sacred duty to do so. A good judge is a public blessing. An in- 
different or an indolent judge is a public calamity. Mr. Green prob- 
ably will be a good judge. He is well read in the law. He has an even, 
equable temper. His natural sense of justice will be fortified by ex- 
perience gained in the many important cases in which he has been 
referee. Moreover, Mr. Green is popular with the bar and with his 
party. 

Mr. Ward already has proved himself a good judge. During the 
brief time he has been on the Supreme Bench none has named him 



376 HAMILTON WARD. 

but to praise. He evidently possesses the judicial temperament, while 
for many years he has been one of the foremost lawyers of the State. 

Both Messrs. Green and Ward will receive the full party vote. 

The nomination of the Hon. Hamilton Ward and Mr. Manly C. 
Green to the Supreme Court bench in the Eighth Judicial District was 
predicted in yesterday's Express. The result of the Republican Judi- 
ciary Convention held yesterday in the rear parlors of The Iroquois 
was not therefore in the nature of a surprise. There were originally 
six candidates for the two offices, but the withdrawal of the name of 
Judge Daniels finally reduced the list to Manly C. Green, Tracy C. 
Becker, County Judge Alfred Spring of Cattaraugus, Judge Potter of 
Niagara County, and Judge Hamilton Ward of Allegany; and it was 
early evident that Messrs. Green and Ward had a strong lead. 

All the delegates were present, 30 in number. Mr. Daniel J. 
Kenefick, chairman of the district committee, called the convention to 
order and stated the objects. 

Mr. Jerome E. Fisher of Chautauqua moved that Mr. Norris 
Morey act as chairman, which was carried. Mr. Morey, in assuming 
the chair, returned his sincere thanks for the honor, and reminded 
those present that, in a government of law, the right exercise of the 
judicial power and the selection of fit and competent men as judges 
were matters of grave importance. 

Messrs. John R. Hazel of Erie and C. D. Van Aernam of Cattar- 
augus were chosen secretaries on the motion of Mr. Emory P. Close. 
Some talk ensued about the swearing in of officers under the election 
laws. Secretary Hazel drew up the necessary affidavits, and very 
little time was lost in removing all possibility of question on this score. 

Mr. Frank W. Higgins of Cattaraugus moved the nomination of 
Mr. Manly C. Green for one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. 

Before this was made unanimous, as was suggested, the Hon. 
E. L. Pitts asked and obtained leave to make an address. He' said: 

"Mr. Chairman: — Before that motion is put, I desire to state that 
I came to this convention with the firm intention of placing in nomin- 
ation Hon. Charles Daniels for that high position that he has adorned, 
and so highly adorned, for these 20 years. I was fully aware that 
longer service upon the bench was of no importance to him, could add 
nothing to his high reputation and character as a jurist; that, sir, is 
secure and safe for all time; for his learning, his integrity, his great 
ability as a judge, is written in the records of the decisions of this our 
great Commonwealth. He has a State and National reputation as a 
jurist. I could not but feel, however, that while it might not be Im- 



JUDICIAL CONVENTION, 1891, 377 

portant to him, it v/as of great advantage to the people of the State 
of New York and to this Judicial District, that we should avail our- 
selves of his great experience, his reputation, his ability, his courage, 
his devotion to the discharge of the duties of the office of Judge of the 
Supreme Court, and that this convention would make no mistake if 
they summoned him again to act as judge of that court for the few 
years which remain to him before the Constitutional limitation shall 
take him from the bench. He certainly, and I believe that every law- 
yer in this district, every gentleman here, will agree with me, by his 
industry and by his great learning and by his profound knowledge 
of the law, by his impartiality, has given a character to the bench of 
the Eighth Judicial District, equal to that of any of the distinguished 
gentlemen who have been associated with him in the discharge of the 
duties of that position. 

I have in my possession a letter from Judge Daniels in which he 
begs me to withdraw his name from the attention of this convention. 
I do this reluctantly and with deep regret, and I know that the public 
will share these feelings with me, in the withdrawal of the man who 
will be remembered through all time as an able, an incorruptible, an 
honest, and a just judge. [Applause.] 

Mr. Green's nomination was then made unanimously in accord- 
ance with the motion of Mr. Higgins. 

On motion of Mr. J. B. Fisher the convention decided to take a 
formal viva voce ballot for the nomination of a successor to the late 
Judge Corlett. A motion by Mr. E. M. Ashley to take a recess until 
two o'clock was lost by 18 to 12. 

When the ballot was taken, each delegate rising and naming his 
choice, Allegany, Chautauqua, Genesee and Erie (all but the Second 
District), pronounced for the Hon. Hamilton Ward, Cattaraugus fav- 
ored the Hon. Alfred Spring, and the Second District of Erie went for 
Mr. Tracy C. Becker. 

The Hon. E. C. Ellsworth at this stage, in behalf of Niagara 
County, asked to be excused from voting, and recognizing the virtual 
choice of the convention, moved to make the nomination of Mr. Ward 
unanimous. This was seconded by Mr. Higgins of Cattaraugus and 
carried. 

Messrs. Bartlett, Ellsworth and Higgins were appointed a com- 
mittee to notify Messrs. Green and Ward of their nomination. 

THE NOMINATIONS ACCEPTED. 
The Hon, Hamilton Ward was received with applause on enter- 
ing. He said: 



378 HAMILTON WARD. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: — I have just 
been apprised through your ocmmittee of my nomination by your body 
as representing the Republicans of the Eighth Judicial District for the 
high office of Justice of the Supreme Court. I need not say to you that 
I feel it a high honor to be nominated for this office by so distinguished 
a body of gentlemen as composes this convention, and one that I duly 
appreciate and for which I beg you to accept my grateful thanks. 

I regard this office as among the most important of any under 
our system of government. It requires the highest order of talent, the 
clearest and brightest perception, a profound knowledge of the law, 
and that judicial poise of mind which is so essential for the proper ad- 
ministration of justice. I am reminded that in our judicial history a 
long line of distinguished jurists have occupied the bench of the Su- 
preme Court in this Judicial District. Among them we readily recall 
the names of Sill, Mullett, and Marvin, Barker, Grover, Talcott, and 
Daniels, names that are illustrious in our judicial history, men whose 
great works in the administration of justice on the bench have illu- 
minated the law and shed luster on themselves. A judge, in my opin- 
ion, should temper justice with mercy, and judicial decorum and dig- 
nity with kindness and courtesy. [Great applause.] He should do the 
work assigned him in attending the courts, and should stay until the 
work of the court is completed. 

I regard this nomiantion as the crowning glory of a life, which 
has been somewhat connected with public affairs and had long experi- 
ence at the bar. I cannot measure the gratitude I feel to the friends 
whose faces shine upon me at this moment and to whose efforts I am 
indebted for this nomination. It is v/ith special pleasure that I note 
the fact that I am nominated by a convention that has associated with 
me upon the ticket so' competent and so manly a man as Manly C. 
Green. [More applause.] I hope there may be reserved to you, gen- 
tlemen, a large measure of the prosperity and pleasures of this life, 
and that your lines may be cast in pleasant places. If your choice is 
ratified by the people, I shall endeavor in some measure to meet your 
expectations, and if labor and care, and a special devotion to the duties 
of this high office can enable me to accomplish that result, I assure 
you, gentlemen, they shall be at your service. [Applause.] 

A loud "Amen" provoked a humorous sally on the part of the 
Judge relative to the religious proclivities of the profession. 

Mr. Manly C. Green, who was received with applause, said: 

Mr. President and Gentlemen: — I have just been apprised by 
your committee of my nomination, and the very flattering manner In 
which you have tendered it. I assure you, gentlemen, that I have diffi- 



JUDICIAL CONVENTION, 1891, 379 

culty at this time in expressing to you my heartfelt gratitude and 
thankfulness for the very distinguished honor you have conferred 
upon me. During my canvass throughout the County of Erie I have 
made many warm friendships, and have met with expressions of good 
will which shall ever remain among the pleasant memories of my life. 
In addition to this I have been deeply gratified to learn that I have 
many warm friends outside of my own county, and for their hearty 
support in making my nomination unanimous I desire to express my 
sincere thanks. 

This, gentlemen, has come to me as a joyful surprise. I appre- 
ciate the great responsibilities of the oflBce for which you have placed 
me in nomination. I know that the fierce light of public criticism will 
be turned on the man who aspires to fill the important place which was 
so ably filled by that distinguished jurist, Judge Daniels. I assure 
you that if elected it will be my constant aim to emulate the industry 
and virtues of those eminent jurists who have preceded me, and those 
who are at present on the bench of the Supreme Court. If your action 
of to-day shall be ratified by the people in November, I pledge myself 
to the courteous and courageous discharge of the duties incumbent 
upon me. 

Relying upon the guidance and assistance of the Supreme Judge 
of us all, I trust to be able not only to merit the approval of the gentle- 
men who have this day honored me, but so to discharge the responsible 
duties that the people of the Eighth Judicial District will never have 
cause to regret the choice you have this day made. [Applause.] 

Three hearty cheers were offered for the candidates. Chairman 
Morey then announced the appointment of the following Judiciary 
Committee: 

Allegany — F. A. Robbins. 

Cattaraugus — J. G. Johnson. 

Chautauqua — L. F. Stearns. 

Erie — D. J. Kenefick. 

Genesee — Walter H. Smith. 

Niagara — E. M. Ashley. 

Orleans — I. M. Thompson. 

Wyoming — E. M. Bartlett. 

The convention then adjourned . 

These nominations met with tlie party approval and the 
Democratic press in Allegany and Cattaraugus practically 
supported Mr. Ward. 



380 HAMILTON WARD. 

The Democrats nominated Myron H. Peck of Buffalo 
and W. Caryl Ely of Niagara Falls. No real contest, how- 
ever, was made. 

At the election in November, Mr. Ward ran ahead of 
his ticket in almost every election district m the district, and 
especially so in his home county. This was most gratifying 
because the recent adoption of the secret ballot law made it 
very difficult for the voters to favor any particular candidate. 
He ran about 1,500 ahead of his ticket in the district, of 
which Allegany contributed about 1,100. There were only 
28 votes cast against hi min the town of Amity, out of a total 
poll of 600. 

Concerning the result of the election, the Wellsville 
Democrat says : 

JUDGE HAMILTON WARD. 

The compliment paid the Hon. Hamilton Ward by the people of 
Allegany County, regardless of party affiliation, at Tuesday's election 
was a deserved one. 

Mr. Ward has been on the bench but a few months. In that 
brief time he has made a Judicial record that loses none of its brill- 
iancy by comparison with eminent jurists of the past or present. The 
hearty and we may say unanimous endorsement of Mr. Ward by the 
people of Allegany, is no less a compliment to him than to the sagacity 
and judgment of Governor Hill in appointing Mr. Ward to the vacancy 
caused by the death of Judge Corlctt. The Democrat heartily con- 
gratulates the newly elected Judge Ward, the people of Allegany, and 
the Judicial district. They will have no occasion to regret the 
selection of a Supreme Justice in the person of Hamilton Ward. 

Mr. Ward always had a high idea of the judicial office, 
and while among the most approachable of men, he zealous- 
ly guarded the dignity of his position. He was among the 
first of the Justices to bar unadmitted persons from motion 
making, and always appointed referees on his own motion, 
much to the wrath of the bar. 

In the month of October an altercation between two at- 
torneys occurred in the Special Term room, in which Mr. 
Ward was hearing motions, which illustrated this quality. 



THE ELECTION. 381 

The Hon. Frank Brundat^e and John L. Romer, both of 
Buffalo, had engaged at the time of the adjournment of 
Court in a mental and physical squabble, which was not then 
observed by Mr. Ward. The next morning he summoned 
the offending attorneys before him, and told them that he 
fe It compelled to take notice of their extraordinary conduct 
in the presence of the Court. That it had come to his atten- 
tion that a blow had been struck, and he asked Judge Brund- 
age if such was the case. Judge Brundage, after stating the 
substance of the altercation, stated that he had slapped Mr. 
Romer across the face, and apologized to the Court for the 
indignity inflicted upon it. Mr. Romer stated that Mr. 
Brundage had brushed his face with his hat, and denied that 
he had called Judge Brundage a scoundrel, as Judge Brund- 
age had declared. Judge Ward then censured both law- 
yers, saying that while such practices might be tolerated "in 
rude communities on the outskirts of civilization," that it 
was not to be permitted in his Court, and he held the ques- 
tion of fine for further consideration ; no fine was, however, 
imposed. 

In the artificial atmosphere of our cities it is the pratice 
for a man who becomes a Justice of the Supreme Court to 
immediately change not only his customary habits of ap- 
parel, but also his manners and method of address, and to 
some extent seek new associates. Mr. Ward, however, was 
always the same; no person was too poor for his notice, no 
friend humble enough to be forgotten. Never fond of so- 
ciety, he did not accept the many invitations pressed upon 
him while in Rochester and Buffalo. He continued his old 
habit of early rising and early retiring. 

Immediately after his election most of the railroads 
sent him annual passes, which he returned, and his corres- 
pondence with Chauncy Depew in 1894 is typical of the let- 
ters on this subject. 

It is as follows : 



382 HAMILTON WARD. 

New York Central & Hudson River R. R. Co. 
President's Office. 
Grand Central Depot, 

New York, Jan. 8tli, 1894. 

Please accept the enclosed annual pass over this Company's 
Road, with the compliments of 

Yours truly. 

CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 
President. 
Belmont, N. Y., January 12th, 1894. 

My dear Sir: — I have received your favor of the 8th inst. en- 
closing an annual pass for myself on the N. Y. C. & H. R. Railroad. 

It is herewith returned to you as I cannot accept it. In so doing 
I do not wish to criticize in any manner your action, on the contrary, 
permit me to thank you for the courtesy extended. 

I do not think that Judges of Courts should accept passes for 
the transportation of themselves or families, or of their property, from 
corporations or individuals. Not that I suppose that it influences the 
Judges improperly in favor of the corporation in many instances, but 
it might constitute an embarrassment in actions and proceedings that 
come before the Court and Judges in which these corporations were 
involved. I can well see how a conscientious and upright Judge, hav- 
ing a railroad case before him with that railroad pass in his pocket, the 
parties to the litigation cognizant of the fact, that it might seriously 
embarrass the Judge and unconsciously influence him to apply a 
stricter rule to the corporation and against it than he otherwise would. 
In fact he might, as is commonly observed, "stand up so straight that 
he would lean over backwards." 

Again, the public are justly sensitive about the conduct of their 
Judges; anything that impairs its confidence in the Courts will in the 
end work mischief to all concerned. The feeling is growing among 
the people that corporations are having an undue weight everywhere, 
in legislation and with the courts; and it is a matter of common re- 
mark among the people when some poor fellow gets beaten by a rail- 
road corporation in the courts, especially if the plaintiff is non-suited 
in a negligence action against the corporation, "Oh, that Judge had a 
pass in his pocket!" Now I do not wish to criticize Judges who have 
passes, for it is a custom of long standing, but I think in the future 
it is a custom that would be better honored in the breach than in the 
observance. 

I am sure it would be better for the corporation themselves if 
they were absolutely prohibited by constitutional or legislative man- 



REFUSES RAILROAD PASSES. 383 

date from giving passes to any official, judicial or otherwise, and I 
think the time has come when that should be done, and I hope you will 
unite with all others who choose to take an interest in the matter in 
pressing upon the constitutional convention the duty of providing an 
amendment to the constitution which will accomplish that purpose. 
This, I believe, has been done in several of the States. 

This matter, my dear sir, is addressed to you personally and Is 
not intended for parade or publication. 

I hope you find yourself well and happy this new year, and with 
kind regards, I am, 

Yours sincerely, 

HAMILTON WARD. 
P. S. — I would be glad to know whether this leter is received. 

Jan. 15, 1894. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward. 

Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of yours of January 12th, and have 
read the same with interest. I appreciate your sentiments, if I do not 
agree with them. 

Yours very truly, 

CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 

Mr. Ward enjoyed his work. A long country practice 
had made him familiar with most of the questions presented, 
and his intense humanity found ample scope at a busy cir- 
cuit where a hundred new faces and odd incidents appeared 
daily. 

He was now removed from any serious apprehension 
concerning his financial future, and he regularly laid aside a 
portion of his salary. 

In March, 1892, Mr. Ward presided at the Erie County 
Oyer and Terminer at the trial of Elleil Hughes, a half 
crazed unfortunate, who had thrown her illegitimate babe 
in the canal, and who was charged with its murder. She 
was defended by William H. Hotchkiss, then commencing 
his career; the defense was insanity, and of it, in his charge, 
Justice Ward said : "You have seen people who are trem- 
bling along the border line between sanity and insanity; you 
have marked these unquiet spirits that live along that line; 
among them may be classed statesmen, poets, dreamers, 
romancers, short haired women and long haired men — nil 



384 HAMILTON WARD. 

sort of queer people. They live along the border line, the 
hysterical folks, the drunkards — people who live on ano- 
dynes and stimulants." 

In July, 1892, while holding the Erie County 
Special Term, the National Savings Bank of Buffalo closed 
its doors, owing to the defalcation of its cashier, who stole 
about $250,000.00. The deposits amounted to about 
$1,300,000.00, and an application was immediately made to 
Mr. Ward for the appointment of a receiver. For this fat 
job there was a bitter struggle. State authorities demanded 
it, local politicians asked for it. The association of deposit- 
ors urged their claims. Newspapers abused Mr. Ward for 
his supposed intention to appoint one man or the other. 
Finally, after mature consideration, Mr. Ward decided that 
the bank could be re-organized; that the depositors could 
be paid 78 per cent, of their money. All the wasteful ex- 
pense of a receivership was saved, and the re-organized bank 
is now firm in the confidence of the people. 

The Presidential campaign in this year was an interest- 
ing one, and Mr. Ward chafed at his enforced absence from 
the stump. Benjamin Harrsion, who had made an excellent 
President, was a candidate for renomination, and opposed 
to him hostile party leaders had revived the "Plumed 
Knight." Harrison, however, was nominated, and Mr. 
Ward was deeply anxious to see him reconciled to Piatt and 
Quay, and to see them enter vigorously into the campaign. 

In June in a letter to Elijah Halford, Private Secretary 
to the President, he renewed his suggestion of four years 
previous, that Piatt be made Secretary of the Treasury, and 
later when the breach between Piatt and the President 
seemed to widen, he went to see Piatt in New York, and 
then called upon the President at Loon Lake, in the Adiron- 
dacks, in an effort to bring them together, and later had 
some correspondence with him and with Mr. Piatt on the 
subject. 

Other earnest Republicans were endeavoring to pro- 
mote this same result, and finally a superficial understanding- 
was reached which was humorously referred to by Mr. Piatt 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 1892. 385 

in a letter to Judge Ward of September 5th, in which he 
says: "After a full and free talk with the President, he con- 
cluded that the administration had better 'support the 
ticket,' and they propose to, he is 'placated 'the wheels will 
now go round." 

This nominal adjustment of the difficulties between the 
President and the party leaders came too late to produce the 
desired results, and the Democratic party swept the country 
in 1892. 

After election in 1892 Mr. Ward attempted to secure 
for his elder son, who had been admitted to the bar in Octo- 
ber, 1892, the place of managing clerk in the Erie County 
District Attorney's office, and finally, with the assistance of 
William F. Sheehan and George T. Quinby, had a new clerk- 
ship created in said office, known as the Collateral Inherit- 
ance Clerk, to which position his son was appointed by 
George T. Quinby, the District Attorney; the salary was 
$1,200.00 per year. 

At this period the Eighth Judicial District had six 
judges and two of them were assigned to General Terms and 
the Circuit w^ork fell on Childs, Lambert, Green and Ward. 
Each county had from two to five terms of the Supreme 
Court with a jury, and from two to four terms without a 
jury. There was more business than there is at the present 
time (1901) and the judges were kept moving. Three of 
them were kept in Erie County most of the time, and the 
other counties consumed about one-fourth of their time. 
This kept Mr. Ward away from his home a good deal, but he 
did as much of his work as he could in Belmont, and having 
given up his law office, and turned over his business to the 
firm of Reynolds & Brown, he removed part of his library to 
his house, where he was assisted in a clerical capacity by Mr. 
Eldyn Reynolds. 

In the fall of 1892 his younger son. John C. Ward, en- 
tered Harvard College and Mr. and Mrs. Ward were left 
alone. 

In the years 1892-2-3 and 4 Mr. Ward wrote a consider- 
able number of opinions, some of whicli got into the books. 



386 HAMILTON WARD. 

In 1892 he passed upon the Erie County pre-election 
trouble; in 1893 he wrote an opinion which has since guided 
local real estate men that an "option" on land without a con- 
sideration is of no force, and in 1894, in the case of White vs. 
Louden, where a real estate promoter, by false and ex- 
travagant statements, had procured a number of Pennsyl- 
vanians to purchase at an exhorbitant figure, a large tract of 
land near Buffalo, Mr. Ward rebuked the practice in the fol- 
lowing language : 

"The plaintiff's counsel says that no doubt Mr, Johnson 
puffed up the lands, or engaged in some puffing, to these de- 
fendants. Under the circumstances of this case Johnson 
should have indulged in no puffing. If a man has a horse 
before him or a farm in sight, which he is trying to sell and 
the purchaser being present, and having an opportunity to 
judge of the exact value of any exaggerated statement he 
may make, he may be pardoned perhaps in the course of 
trade and in the anxiety to make a good bargain for doing a 
little 'puffing;' but when he goes to a distant State and seeks 
persons who are entirely unacquainted with the property he 
seeks to sell, and who have to rely, and do rely upon his 
word, he should indulge in no 'puffing,' no exaggeration, but 
simply tell the unvarnished truth in all particulars. Frauds 
of this character are entirely too common, they seem to in- 
crease with the growth of great cities and in the hot strife of 
booming localities, and they deserve condemnation when- 
ever a clear case is established." 

This opinion was adopted by the General Term and is 
reported in the goth Volume of Hun, Supreme Court Re- 
ports, at page 218. 

In the case of Simmons vs. Burrell, reported in the 8th 
Volume of Miscellaneous Reports, at page 388, Mr. Ward 
in his opiion furnished a valuable review of the little under- 
stood law of adoption, and gives a construction favorable to 
the right of the adopted child to inherit as a natural child. 
This opinion has since been cited with much approval, al- 
though limited by the Court of Appeals in Matter of 
Thorne, 155 N. Y., 140. 



WORK AT TRIAL AND SPECIAL TERMS. 387 

1894 was Mr. Ward's last year at the Circuit, and a 
number of his judicial utterances are worthy of notice. A 
part of his charge to the Erie County grand jury in Febru- 
ary, 1894, is as follows: 

"The grand jury has always been favored in our juris- 
prudence. It was organized six hundred years ago among 
our English ancestors in order that accusations for ofTenses 
might be made by more than one person. Criminals were 
frequently so powerful and influential that it was hazardous 
for a single individual to make a charge against them of 
crime. So respectable men to the number of twenty-four 
or less were summoned from the vicinity, from the section of 
country where court was held, selected for their intelligence, 
their capacity and their ability to deal wath difficult matters, 
and they were put into secret session and council to take 
proof and determine as to the guilt or innocence of the per- 
son accused, and to make their accusation as the accusa- 
tion of the whole body; and to protect each individual mem- 
ber from the consequences ; their deliberations were required 
to be secret. So you, gentlemen, as the represntativs of this 
system go into your jury-box, and you deliberate in secret, 
you take proof by the appointed methods when an accusa- 
tion is made against the party; you hear testimony upon 
oath, and if you become satisfied that the accusation is well 
founded,' and upon all the proof submitted to you there 
ought to be a conviction of the defendant, then you make 
the accusation and present it to the Court. That is called 
the indictment. 

This accusation, gentlemen, is a serious matter to the 
party accused. It goes upon the records of the Court, and 
stands against him and his children as long as those records 
remain. So it is important that you should be careful and 
not make this accusation except for the greatest reasons and 
upon proof. On the other hand, v/e have to admit the 
lamentable fact that crime is rampant everywhere, and that 
it assails men of high and low degree alike, almost, and when 
you are satisfied that a crime has been committed you should 



388 HAMILTON WARD. 

fearlessly make your accusation, no matter against whom or 
what may be the consequences to the party accused." 

The most important cases submitted to the jury were 
violations of the election law, and Mr. Ward later presided 
at the trial of one of the indictments. Public clamor ran 
high and it was practically impossible to convict the offend- 
ers, who were Democrats. They expected leniency from 
Mr. Ward because of his friendly relations with Hill and 
vSheehan. The following extracts from his charge will show 
how they were disappointed : 

The law commits to you the important duty of dispos- 
ing of the questions of fact upon the trial of a man charged 
with a crime. No more important duty devolves upon any 
body of men than that. It is the facts in dispute that always 
bring on the litigations, the controversies, and the public, 
and the citizen, and among private citizens, and every one 
instead of fighting out their controversies as they did in 
olden times by brute conflicts, they come to the peaceful 
arbitrament of the Court and Jury. They leave the law to 
the Court. The Court directs you as to what the law of the 
case is, but in the realm of fact you are absolute. It is 
therefore very important when you come to dispose of a 
question of fact that you should have it clearly in your mind 
to dispose of it intelligently. Dispose of it without any refer- 
ence to consequences. If the facts point to a man as guilty, 
no matter who that man is, whether it be President or street 
walker, the law takes hold of him and punishes him. If the 
jury are not satisfied from all the evidence beyond a reason- 
able doubt of the defendant's guilt, then the charity of the 
law pleads for the defendant and works out his acquittal. 
But thisi doubt must be a reason for it. In looking all 
through the evidence, putting it all together, bringing to 
bear your common sense, your best intelligence, if you are 
not satisfied in your minds that the man is guilty or there is 
such doubt of his guilt that you do not feel that you are fully 
convinced from the evidence, why then there is to be no con- 
viction. But, geneltmen, you try the case upon the evi- 
dence. You do not try it by outside clamor. You do not 



WORK AT TRIAL AND SPECIAL TERMS. 389 

try it by newspapers. You do not try it by public sentiment. 
You do not try it by your prejudices, political, social or 
otherwise. You try it on your oaths upon the evidence, and 
when you are convinced one way or the other you will act 
upon that evidence and upon that evidence alone. * * * 
You cannot juggle with these election laws. They are made 
for the safety of the community, of the nation. They are 
made to protect your vote and mine, and that of every citi- 
zen. They are made to secure an honest vote, an honest 
count, and an honest return. Everything that belongs to 
free government hangs upon the integrity of your election 
ofScers and an inspector of election is of more consequence 
in our theory of government than any other officer in it, be- 
cause it is upon his certificate that men are elected or not 
elected; put into office or taken out of ofhce. It is upon his 
certificate that legislators, Judges and Presidents are made. 
He is the primary officer that does the great work of pre- 
serving and carrying out the spirit of our institutions. The 
law wall permit no trifling with these returns. ***;!= 
The Judge who will permit political considerations to sway 
him in the disposition of such a case is unfit for the office he 
holds, and should be hurled from his office. The juror who 
permits himself to be controlled either for or against a de- 
fendant by political considerations is unfit to sit in the jur}' 
box, and he reflects shame and dishonor upon the whole 
jury system. *>;=**** There was a time in the 
old Republics, two thousand years ago, when it was the 
highest boast of a Roman to say that he was a Roman Citi- 
zen ; and now, in these modern times when our country has 
grown to be the greatest and strongest government on 
earth, and our people the happiest and freest, it is our proud- 
est boast that we are American citizens. The man who 
comes here born on a foreign soil and takes upon himself 
the commission of a naturalized citizen, he is equally proud 
of his citizenship. All this, gentlemen, the future of our 
country, our citizenship, our position among the nations, the 
preservation of our liberties depends upon the preservation 
of the elective system in its purity and in its integrity. When 



390 HAMILTON WARD. 

it has reached the time that the pubhc have no more confi- 
dence in election returns, beheve they are carried by fraud, 
beheve they do not express the honest verdict of the voter, 
then they are ready for anarchy and bloodshed and a change 
of government," 

In a railroad case in 1894, Mr. Ward charged as fol- 
lows : 

"Railroads are indispensable in this country; they de- 
velop a country ; we all use them, and while I have no doubt 
railroad corporations, like other corporations, become ag- 
gressive, sometimes oppressive, as that is the tendency of 
the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of any- 
body; but they are indispensible, — they have their rights 
and must be protected. The man who travels along the 
high\vay on foot without a dollar in his pocket, with the 
breath in his body, with the brains in his head, with the days' 
work in his hands, has his rights and they must be protected. 
Now when the two come to the precise spot where the rail- 
road company and the individual have the right of passage, 
the courts and jurors have been long occupied with the 
question as to their exact rights and duties at that particular 
point. The railroad car, as I said, is propelled by steam 
and cannot be stopped in a moment ; the tremendous force 
which is put in motion to carry the long trains through the 
country at such great speed is regarded by the law as justify- 
ing the railroads in the occupation of their roads, and that 
when the person comes along the highway he must look and 
wait and watch for a moment to see whether the train is 
passing ; if the train is passing he must stop because he can 
stop; he can stop his wagon, he can stop himself on short 
notice, but the rushing train cannot stop on short no- 
tice, and therefore the train has the precedence for the 
time being. That is common sense and that is but justice. 
Now, however, when the railroad comes along with its 
tremendous forces and with its instruments not only of pass- 
age but of peril, it should be prudent and careful, in some 
manner notifying the public that it is coming along; and 
while the man should be watchful who goes to the crossing 
and not rush into a needless peril, the company should be 



WORK AT TRIAL AND SPECIAL TERMS. 391 

watchful and careful, by all proper means, tliat the public 
have notice that they are coming along with their engines 
and their cars." 

In an action for damages from a brush fire he said: 
"Now Courts and juries are frequently perplexed by this 
question of damage from fires. In England, whence we take 
our laws, the strict rule was held that every man must keep 
his fire upon his own premises at his peril. If it got abroad 
on an errand of mischief he must pay the bill. That theory 
or that view of the law was never taken by our Courts, be- 
cause this is a new country. We have got to clear up our 
forests, and clear up our land and burn our forests, and 
therefore we have to use fire; more than that, fire is 
an element of such common use and such absolute 
necessity that the rule established in this country is that a 
man is not bound absolutely to keep his fire upon his prem- 
ises, but he must not be careless either in setting it or in let- 
ting it run. That is the rule. This fire, you know, accord- 
ing to the old adage, is a good servant but a hard master. 
In the early history of the race we have a story in mythology 
that there was no fire upon the earth, that mankind shivered 
and froze and walked about without any fire, and that fire 
was kept in heaven absolutely because the gods knew how 
dangerous it was to let mankind have it. But the sufiferings 
of the human family were such that one of the inferior 
deities stole it from heaven and gave it to the world, and for 
that he was chained upon a rock and eagles fed upon his 
vitals, but mankind has had the fire ever since and ever since 
the dawn of jurisprudence Courts and juries have been strug- 
gling with the same old problem that perplexed the gods in 
heaven." 

Later in the year 1894 Mr. Ward was designated by 
John Minard, President of the Allegany Historical Society, 
chairman of a committee consisting of E. D. Loveridge, 
Clarence A. Farnham, D. P .Richardson, S. M. Norton and 
himself, to fix the time and place for holding a commemor- 
ative ceremony of the looth anniversary of the settlement cf 
Allegany County. This committee assembled at Mr. Ward's 



392 HAMILTON WARD. 

call and the village of Wellsville was fixed as the place and 
the 19th of June, 1895, designated as the date for the cen- 
tennial celebration, which was successfully held at the time 
and place appointed. 

As a trial judge Mr. Ward felt the burden of the upper 
Courts; the law never seemed fixed, and he frequently be- 
came angry at some ruling of an upper Court. 

As a lawyer he had complained of this and written in 
the front of one of his volumes of Hun, printed in the 8oths, 
is the following : 

"Af^rmed 108 . 

Reversed 65. 

Modified 11. 

Appeal dismissed 2. 

A terrible record of judicial uncertainty. What shall 
we say to our clients who want to know the law ?" 

He wrote a number of opinions in 1891, 2, 3 and 4, many 
of which are reported in the first volumes of the Miscellane- 
ous Reports, and he was wont to keep close track of these 
decisions as they took their perilous journey through the 
upper Courts. 

He kept a Hst of them, and in the case of Reed vs. Mur- 
rill, where a certain transfer to himself by a representative 
had been held void, which holding had been reversed by the 
Court of Appeals, Mr. Ward added: "W\ J. makes mem. 
as follows. This is not the first time that the Court has 
sacrificed the substance of justice and assisted in the con- 
summation of a fraud under the forms of law." 

And again in the ejectment case of Garr vs. Ulen- 
schneider, Mr. Ward adds to his list : "Think some General 
Term has had the cheek to differ from me in this matter." 

Justice Childs and Lambert were Mr. Ward's asso- 
ciates as Trial Justices, and they were thrown much to- 
gether in Buffalo. All country bred, of varied experience, 
and with keen appreciation of humor, many of the jokes per- 
petrated by these gentlemen on each other are still told. 

On one occasion while lunching together Childs and 
Ward unconsciously exchanged hats and discovered their 



ANECDOTES OF JUSTICE WARD. 393 

mutual error later in the day. When the re-exchange was 
effected Judge Ward remarked that ever since he had wore 
that (Childs) hat his ideas had broadened, his vision became 
more clear, that legal questions which had confused him 
righted themselves and that he felt a wiser and a better man. 
"You go to the devil," said Childs. "When I had your hat 
on I wanted to wink at every woman I met." 

One day a bushy headed stenographer was mildly 
chaffing Mr. Ward upon his bald head. "Young man," said 
Mr. Ward, "my head has had something to do besides grow 
hair." 

Once on hearing the Clerk call the list of the grand 
jury, which contained a number of Polish names, which the 
Clerk could not pronounce, Mr. Ward suggested, in a whis- 
per, that he sneeze twice and break a chair, and that every 
Pole in the room would answer. 

On one occasion Justice Childs, who was afflicted with 
a number of dormant Court officers, rebuked a noisy man in 
the audience by saying "Keep quiet, you will wake up every 
officer in the Court room." 

One evening Judge Ward went to the theater, of which 
he was very fond, with his older son, a friend of theirs came in, 
accompanied by a handsome female, to whom the son called 
the Jtidge's attention. "My boy," remarked the Judge, 
"when you are as old as I am you will learn that there is only 
one thing more plentiful on earth than pretty women, and 
that is promising young men." "Stick to the common peo- 
ple, my boy." He used to say: "They are your only real 
friends." 

It was with a feeling of uncertainty that he consented 
to take Justice Haight's place on the General Term in 1895, 
Haight having been elected to the Court of Apepals. His 
appointment was made by Levi P. Morton, and was dated 
January T6th. 

Mr. Ward had proved himself well adapted to the work 
of a trial Justice, and considerable regret was expressed by 
various members of the bar over the change. He had been 
the friend of the poor man and the encourager of the young 



394 HAMILTON WARD. 

man, and while at times of a slightly impatient manner ,he 
never wilfully hurt the feelings of a suitor. Some of his 
measures had been radical, as on one occasion he had ad- 
journed the great winter term of the Erie Court sine die be- 
cause no cases were ready on the first or second day, but he 
was always willing to work, and never subject to "influ- 
ences." 

A letter of regret at his leaving the circuit which is 
typical of many is as follows : 

"Medina, N. Y., January 23rd, 1895. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward. 

My dear Judge: — Allow me to congratulate you upon your ap- 
pointment to the General Term, although it may, in some respects, be 
a gain to you, yet I feel that it is a loss to the members of the bar, you 
being taken away from the Circuit. I have always liked to try cases 
before you, and have always so expressed myself. I have always be- 
lieved and felt, when before you, that you were, so to speak, enrapport 
with the bar. You never put on any airs, nor made any pretensions 
that you amounted to any more when you were Judge, than when you 
were a lawyer. I never have felt under constrain before you. I know 
you possess a great deal more of what we call good horse sense than 
the most of our Judges, and I believe you to be a much better lawyer 
than some of them — to say the least. 

I hope that you will be well pleased with your new position and 
that you will enjoy good health, and I have no doubt but that you will 
be a credit to yourself and to this Judicial District. "And may you 
live long and prosper." 

Very truly yours, 

S. E. FILKINS." 

Mr. Ward's associates on the General Term were 
Charles C. Dwight, of Auburn, P. J.; Loren L. Lewis, of 
Buffalo, and George B. Bradley, of Corning. Several Gen- 
eral Terms were held throughout the year, as the Justices 
might indicate, and calendars of the cases moved for argu- 
ment were prepared by the County Clerk of the county in 
which the General Term sat. 

In 1895 an act was passed providing that the General 
Term of the Fifth Department should sit in Rochester ex- 
clusively, and this made that city Mr. Ward's official resi- 
dence. He lived at the Powers Hotel and pursued his regu- 



WORK ON THE GENERAL TERM. 395 

lar habits of work and exercise. The sittings of the Court 
occupied about one-third of his time, the remainder being 
spent in Behnont preparing decisions. He found the work 
more congenial than he had expected, and enjoyed his asso- 
ciation with the other members of the Court. 

Justice Ward's decisions begin in the 85th volume of 
Hun, Supreme Court Reports. 

In his hrst term in 1895 ^^^ wrote an interesting opinion 
on the duties of attorne)^s toward their clients to be found 
in the case of Burby vs. Common Council, 85 Hun, 601, and 
in Baldwain vs. Golde, on the effect of a lunatic's deed, 88 
Hun, 115. And in matter of Callister, 88 Hun, 87, on the 
effect on a continuing contract, of a marriage between the 
parties. 

In the case of the People ex rel. Hoffman vs. Rupp, 90 
Hun, 153, in a dissenting opinion, Mr. Ward strongly up- 
held the right of the old soldier to preference in public posi- 
tions. And in Crowell vs. Thomas, 90 Hun, 193, he laid 
down strongly the master's duty to furnish his servant a safe, 
place to work and refused to allow him to escape that duty 
by delegating it, as the tendency of the Courts now seems 
to be. 

In 1895, and he did not sit at the January Term, Mr. 
Ward passed on about three hundred cases and motions, and 
wrote fifty-one opinions, four of which are dissenting 
opinions. Most of these are published in the 88th and 90th 
Volumes of Hun's Supreme Court Reports. 

In August, 1895, Mr. Ward was elected a delegate to 
the Judicial Convention from Allegany County, as there 
were three Justices of the Supreme Court to be selected, and 
immediately upon this selection, the newspapers of the city 
of Buffalo, being instigated thereto by certain persons who 
feared Mr. W^ard's presence in the convention, commenced a 
bitter attack upon him for allowing himself to be selected as 
a delegate. 

The only newspaper that did not attack Mr. Ward was 
the Buffalo News, which took no editorial part in the con- 
troversy, but which published interviews with W. J. Glenn, 
the party leader of Allegany County, and ex-Justice of the 



396 HAMILTON WARD. 

Supreme Court Charles Daniels, strongly in defense of Mr. 
Ward's right to go as a delegate. Mr. Ward had no par- 
ticular interest in the convention, and was not elected in 
the interest of any candidate, and when the clamor on the 
subject arose he decided that the game was not worth the 
candle, and wrote the following letter, which was published : 

"I was elected a delegate from Allegany County to the Judicial 
Convention, which I esteem a very great compliment. There seems to 
be some objection to my serving as such a delegate, being a Justice of 
the Supreme Court. No one is more sensitive than I am to the respect 
that is due to the Court and its members, and to the sentiment which 
precludes them to a large degree from political action. 

I have no interest in the Judicial Convention further than that 
good men should be selected as Justices of the Supreme Court. I have 
observed the interview with ex-Judge Daniels and Mr. Glenn, who have 
kindly sustained the view of the Allegany Convention in selecting me 
as a delegate, and also the criticisms of certain newspapers upon the 
subject. Perhaps in deference to such criticism and to the sensibility 
of well-meaning people on the subject I had better not go into the con- 
vention, but that is the conclusion I have reached, as it is important 
under all circumstances to preserve the confidence in the Judiciary of 
the State." 

This closed the incident, except that further editorial 
comment was had in the Buffalo press, the Bufifalo News 
being as follows : 

JUDGE WARD WAIVES HIS RIGHT. 
Judge Hamilton Ward of the Supreme Court has decided to 
waive his right as a citizen to represent Allegany County in the Judicial 
Convention, because of the clamor raised against him in some of the 
papers of his own party, and all the Democratic press. In so doing the 
Judge makes a concession which he need not have made and which 
involves no principle. He had a right to represent Allegany County 
in the convention. Allegany County had a right to choose him as a 
delegate. He was neither better nor worse as a delegate for being 
a judge. But certain candidates feared he would not support them — 
hence the howl that has gone up, and the Judge preferring that even 
unjust criticism should not be leveled against an occupant of the 
bench in a city where he holds his court declined to serve as a delegate. 



WITHDRAWAL AS A DELEGATE TO JUDlCLiL CONVENTION 397 

The political puritans who are always inveighing against our 
nominating conventions and wanting better and more representative 
men to take part in them may now explain how it is that as soon as a 
Judge of the Supreme Court becomes a delegate he is denounced as 
lowering the dignity of the court. It would be interesting to know if 
they really want more representative delegates or more pliable ones. 

Later Mr. Ward designated George A. Green of Bel- 
mont as his substitute in the convention. 

When the new Appellate Division came to be organized 
Governor JMorton sent for Justice Ward and conferred with 
him concerning the make up of the Court for the Fourth 
Department, and therefore when the Governor announced 
the Court without Mr. W^ard it created much surprise, and, as 
by this time Mr. Ward had begun to take pride in his work 
on the Appellate Court, he was deeply chagrined at having it 
cut off. Much indignation was expressed by Mr. Ward's 
judicial colleagues in the Eighth Judicial District. Justice 
Lambert and others brought pressure to bear on Justice 
Green, who had been designated as one of the Appellate 
Judges, to resign. This Justice Green refused to do, and in 
a few weeks matters adjusted themselves by a change in the 
Appellate Courts, which made a vacancy in the Fourth De- 
partment, and to which Mr. Ward was first temporarily and 
then permanently appointed. This delay in appointing him 
put him last in the Court, which was composed of George A. 
Hardin of Little Falls, David L. Follett of Norwich, William 
H. Adams of Canandaigua, and Manly C. Green of Bufifalo. 

Before Governor Morton made the appointment of Mr. 
Ward he was waited on by a huge delegation composed of 
the leaders of the bar in the Eighth Judicial District, with 
almost all the Senators and Assemblymen, besides many of 
the Rochester bar, who urged Mr. Ward's appointment to 
the Appellate Division. This unsolicited mark of friendship 
and esteem was more gratifying to Mr. Ward than the Gov- 
ernor's appointment, which was made January 20, 1896. 

Mr. Ward still continued to reside at the Powers Hotel 
while in Rochester and to do his work at home. The Legis- 



398 HAMILTON WARD. 

lature gave him a clerk and Mr. Elydn Reynolds was ap' 
pointed to the position. 

His younger son graduated from Harvard College in 
June, 1896. In September he entered the General Theologi- 
cal Seminary of the Episcopal Church, in New York City, 
where he commenced to prepare himself for the Episcopal 
Ministry. His oldest son had become one of the Assistant 
District Attorneys of Erie County in 1895, and besides had 
opened a law office in 1S94, and was doing a small business. 

Mr. Ward's health was excellent and it was commonly 
remarked that he grew younger every year. 

Some of the cases heard by Mr. Ward and in which he 
wrote opinions are as follows : 

Mahar vs. The New York Central Railroad Company, 
5 Appellate Division Reports, page 22, contains an elabor- 
ate case review of the law of negligence, and contributory 
negligence as applied to passengers attempting to alight 
from railroad cars. 

Bagley and Sewell Company vs. Ehrlicher, 8 Appellate 
Division, page 581, lays down the rule that a multiplicity of 
creditors" suits against the stockholders of an insolvent cor- 
poration can be restrained and an accounting directed to 
establish the claims of all the creditors and the liability of all 
the stockholders. 

In Heffern vs. Hunt, 8 Appellate Division, page 585, 
(Follett, J., dissenting), he held that in an action in tort the 
plaintif? cannot bring in a new party defendant, and that Sec- 
tions 452 and 723 of the Code of Civil Procedure did not ap- 
ply to such actions. 

In Hanrahan vs. Cochran, 12 Appellate Division, page 
91, where two gentlemen were racing horses and one of 
them collided with a third, he held that both racers were 
equally responsible for the accident. 

In Hoefler vs. Hoefier, 12 Appellate Division, page 87, 
there is an interesting opinion on the right of one who has 
been damaged to bring action, although no precedents exist. 

In 1896 the Court passed on some five hundred cases 
and motions, and Mr. Ward wrote forty-one opinions. 
These opinions are to be found in the first twelve volumes of 



399 

the Appellate Division Reports of the New York Supreme 
Court. 

Mr. Ward's work seemed to give general satisfaction. 

Justice Childs in a letter to him August 22nd, 1896, 
speaks of his work as follows: 

I may say in conclusion that you have more than justified my 
expectations in your present position, and you know they were high. 
I am proud of you. I like the man who in addition to brains has the 
stand up. I have no use for an empty bag. I wish you a continuance 
of your success. I should not be thus frank in speaking in your praise 
did I not believe that our relations would absolve me from any sus- 
picion of a desire to flatter. A man may be frank with his friends, 
and ought to be, although it requires him to speak in his praise. 
I am, sincerely yours, 

HENRY A. CHILDS. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward." 

This year was the year of the Free Silver crusade and 
Mr. Ward's friend, David B. Hill, was defeated for the Presi- 
dential nomination in the Chicago Convention, and almost 
driven out of his party. Mr. Ward wrote him on the party 
situation and received from him the following characteristic 
letter: 

"Albany, N. Y., Sept. 12th, 1896. 
\ Per?onal ) 

My dear Judge: — Your recent letters were duly received. I read 
each of them with much interest. The situation for a Democrat who 
desires at all times to be loyal to his party is very difficult. I am giv- 
ing the matter very careful consideration and moving slowly. I was a 
Democrat before the Chicago Convention, and I am a Democrat still — 
very still. I am always glad to hear from you. 

With kindest regards to Mrs. Ward and yourself, I remain. 
Very truly yours, 

DAVID B. HILL. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward, 

Belmont, N. Y." 

The town of Almond celebrated its looth anniversary 
in September of this year, and I^Ir. Ward was invited to de- 



400 HAMILTON WARD. 

liver the address. His remarks on that occasion were prin- 
cipally local in their application and showed a considerable 
knowledge of the early settlers. 

His opening remarks were as follows : 

"In the journey of life we look ahead. We seldom look behind 
because the past is dead, the present is fleeting and what we expect 
to accomplish in this world is garnered in the storehouse of the future. 
The young with bright hopes and great anticipations look to the future 
and long to explore its mysteries. The old, saddened by experiences, 
and with but little hope, still look to the future though it be but to gaze 
upon the setting sun. 

But there are times when we look back with profound interest, 
gratitude and affection; when a recurring year or century brings the 
anniversary of some great event of historic, moral or intellectual char- 
acter, some turning point of time that made the world better and hap- 
pier; some upward step in the mark of progress or reform; some 
corner turned where mankind took a wiser and a beter course; some 
dividing of the ways when the human race threw off some superstition, 
some false doctrine, and took the right path to a higher plane. * * * 

We have met to celebrate the anniversary of the settlement of 
the town of Almond, in the County of Allegany, and we look back over 
the changes and vicissitudes that have attended the people of this 
town for a century, and now, to-day, 

"Lift we the twilight curtain of the past 
And turning from familiar sight and sound, 

Sadly and with reverence let us cast 
A glance upon tradition's shadowy ground; 

And that which history gives not to the eye 
The faded colors of time's tapestry 
Let fancy, with her dream-dipped brush, supply." 

For the moment let this moving scene; these stalwart men and 
lovely women and happy children and all the structures that are about 
us in this village; the houses and the thrifty farms and cultivated 
grounds of your beautiful township disappear, and let us In imagina- 
tion stand in the presence of the primeval forest as it stood one hun- 
dred years ago, and as it had stood from the creation of the world. 

A sound strikes the ear; a sound that shall echo forevermore; 
it is the sound of the axe, of the first settler in what is now the town 
of Almond, cutting his way from this valley through the forests up to 



ALMOND CENTENNIAL ADDRESS. 401 

Karr Valley to make the first settlement in the town. He was a strong 
man in the prime of life, with a stem face and a heart full of courage; 
the bear stood up and looked at him and wondered who the intruder 
was; the wolf and the panther snarled and growled, but awed by his 
presence retired deeper into the forest, but the birds in the overhang- 
ing trees who had not learned to fear the face of man, gave him sweet 
welcome with their songs; the sun shone down through the forest and 
upon the stream at his feet that seemed to give him a merry welcome 
as it passed." 

Some of the opinions written by him in 1897 are as fol- 
lows : 

In Laible vs. N. Y. Central & Hudson River Railroad 
Company, reported in the 13th Volume of the Appellate Di- 
vision Reports, page 574, a negligence case, he reviews with 
great care the doctrine of proximate cause. 

On the same subject is Purcell vs. Lauer, where the 
proximate cause of death is considered, and the common law 
rule that the death must occur within a year and a day to 
support an action, held not to be the law, 14 Appellate Di- 
vision, page 33. 

In Hungerford vs. Hungerford, 16 Appellate Division, 
page 612, he held that an agreement of separation entered 
into between husband and wife during coverture if not ab- 
solutely void is voidable as against public policy, and in the 
case of the People vs. Dorthy, 20 Appellate Division, page 
308, he held that the disbarment proceeding and the action 
of his church against the defendant were not competent sub- 
jects of defendant's cross-examination. 

One of the most important and interesting opinions 
ever written by Justice Ward was in the case of Fox vs. 
The Bufifalo Park, reported in Vol. 21 of the Appellate 
Division Reports at page 321, and affirmed without opinion 
in the Court of Appeals. A crowded grand stand had par- 
tially given away, and a number of people had been injured, 
and after an interesting review of the English and American 
authorities. Justice Ward held : That the owners of such 
structures impliedly warrant their safety and that they can- 
not excuse themselves because of employing a competent 
architect. 



402 HAMILTON WARD. 

In the case of the City of Utica vs. The Utica Telephone 
Company, reported in Volume 24, Appellate Division Re- 
ports, page 361, Judge Ward held that a telephone company 
could not erect its poles in a city street v/ithout the consent 
of the city. 

Perhaps the most interesting opinion ever written by 
Justice Ward was in the case of Strobel vs. The Kerr Salt 
Company, reported in Volume 24 of the Appellate Division 
Reports, at page 627. This was an action brought by the 
old time mill owners along Oatka Creek, which flows 
through Wyoming and Genesee counties, in the State of 
New York, against the great salt industries wdiich, after the 
discovery of salt in 1880, had established themselves on the 
head waters of this creek, used a certain amount of the water 
for mining the salt, and impregnated the stream to a consid- 
erable extent with the salt and other minerals. 

The defendant, while denying that it affected the waters 
of the stream, alleged that it represented a great industry, 
and that the water was necessary to it, and that considerable 
laitude should be given it in the use of the water. The 
referee had dismissed the plaintiff's complaint, and the Ap- 
pellate Division sustained him. Justice Ward, however, 
wTote a dissenting opinion in which he made an extensive 
and careful review of the law governing water courses, and 
the rights of those over whose lands the w-ater courses exist, 
and in answer to the defendant's argument that it w^as a 
great industry, and that the march of progress required lib- 
eral views, said: 

''The learned Trial Court could hardly have considered 
the full effect of the conclusion it reached. As appHed to 
the case at bar it means simply this. That upon the discov- 
ery of this salt deposit, 2,000 feet beneath this stream, the 
defendant, well knowing the existence of the plaintiff's mills 
and their long use and appropriation of the waters of the 
stream in their business, and being bound to know the law- 
governing the rights of parties in that regard, devotes the 
stream to a use hitherto unknown, and which could not have 
been anticipated by any of the prior occupants of the stream, 
and in carrying on a large and profitable business, converts 



DECISIONS ON THE APPELLATE COURT. 403 

a fresh water stream into a salt water stream to the manifest 
injury of the mill proprietors below, without compensation 
to them or condemnation of their rights, which amounts to a 
certain extent to the confiscation of their property. Carry- 
ing this principle further, license would be given to any other 
combination of capital to crush out the little holders and in- 
dividuals under the specious pretext of the public good. 
Examples of the pernicious effects of such a doctrine might 
be multiplied indetinitely. They will readily occur to a re- 
tlecting mind. We cannot disguise the fact that while the 
growth of corporations and vast combinations of capital in 
this country have useful, nay, indispensable, features, yet 
their tendency is to crush out the individual and advance 
their own interests. At least this idea has taken hold of a 
great number of our people, especially the laboring classes, 
and the mutterings of discontent, if not of revolution, are 
heard in every direction. The people in this emergency turn 
naturally to the courts as just and conservative bodies, to 
protect alike the individual and the combination, and the 
courts must perform that duty. The loose doctrine as to the 
invasion of private rights which seems to be inculcated by 
the cases we have last considered does not correctly state the 
law of this State. In this State beyond the range of the 
maxim " de minimis non curat lex " ( the law regards 
not mere trifles ) wherever the citizen suffers substan- 
tial damage, from the act of another, the law affords redress. 
If the damages are capable of being ascertained in an action 
at law redress must be had in an action. If, from the nature 
of the act committed, or threatened, justice cannot be done 
or the damages accurately ascertained, irreparable mischief 
he threatened, or a multiplicity of suits might result, equity 
may be invoked, and the restraining power of the Court 
called into exercise. The strict rule of the common law as 
to water courses has not been modified, but it has been am- 
plified and extended to reach as far as justice and equity 
would permit the changed and ever changing conditions that 
the growth of a great country manifest, and the exhaustive 
opinion of Grover, J., in Clinton vs. Myers (46 N. Y., 511) re- 



404 HAMILTON WARD. 

views this subject, pointing out the new cases to which this 
law has been apphed, and other cases have arisen where the 
Courts have done the same thing, but in no case has the right 
of the individual, however humble his station or inconse- 
quential his business, been sacrificed to meet the emergen- 
cies or wants of combinations of capital." 

This case was appealed to the Court of Appeals and 
Mr. Ward's view was upheld by a unanimous Court. Judge 
Vann, writing the opinion reported in 164 New York Re- 
ports, at page 303, and a new trial was directed. 

Early in 1897 Thomas C. Piatt was returned to the 
United States Senate. His vindication had come after six- 
teen weary years, and frail in body, but ever firm in mind, he 
was the undisputed leader of his party in the Empire State. 
As one of the old "Stalwarts," Judge Ward was of course de- 
lighted at this result, and in answer to his letter of congratu- 
lation received the following from the Senator : 

"49 Broadway, New York, Jan'y 25, 1897. 
Hon. Hamilton Ward, 

Belmont, N. Y. 

My dear Judge:— I have had letters and letters, from friends all 
over the State, congratulatory and commendatory, but yours touches 
me more deeply than most of them, or any of them. You were one of 
the "Old Guard" during the times that tried men's souls— one of the 
patriots who never faltered or doubted. You have been one of the 
friends who has not deserted me in the hours of storm and distress. 
I know that you sincerely rejoice when I rejoice and exult over my ex- 
altation. The numbers are not many of the tried and true who still 
remain with us. The old friends are the ones worth having, and I 
appreciate more than I can tell you your kind expressions of congratu- 
lation. 

The doctors tell me I must seek rest in a more congenial clime 
if I expect to serve out any part of my term as United States Senator. 
I shall go away, to be gone for four weeks, so that I shall not have the 
pleasure of seeing you until I get back, but when I do return I will 
welcome you with open arms at any time that suits your convenience. 
Yours faithfully, 

T. C. PLATT. 
Please convey to Mrs. Ward the assurances of appreciation of 
Mrs. Piatt and myself of all her kind expressions of friendship." 



DECISIONS ON THE APPELLATE COURT. 405 

The most important case passed upon by the AppeUate 
Division in 1898 was the case of Wadsworth vs. Murray, 29 
Appellate Division, page 191. This was an action for the 
construction of a will made in 1844, and involved the vast 
landed interests of the Wadsworth family in Western New 
York, A young Englishman, a grandson of the testator, 
claimed an interest under the will on the termination of a life 
estate in another grandchild, the will providing that the re- 
mainder should go to the heirs of the testator. After discus- 
sing the difference between vested and contingent remaind- 
ers, Justice Ward held that the English grandson was barred 
because he was an alien. There was also a number of other 
questions involved in the case. 

This decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in 
Volume 161 of the New York Reports, at page 274. 

In the case of the People ex rel. White vs. The Alder 
men, 31 Appellate Division, page 438, there is an interesting 
opinion construing the blanket ballot election law, and de- 
ciding what marks avoid, and what marks do not avoid, a 
ballot. 

In Reynolds vs. The Board of Education, 33 Appellate 
Division Reports, page 88, where a truant oi^cer in en- 
deavoring to arrest a boy, chased him in front of a train 
which killed him. Justice Ward held that the doctrine of re- 
spondeat superior did not apply, and that the municipal au- 
thorities were not liable. 

The opinion to which Mr. Ward devoted the most time 
and labor was written in the case of Allen vs. Stevens, re- 
ported in 33 of the Appellate Division Reports at page 485. 
This was an action to construe the will of a rich man who 
had left the bulk of his large property to three trustees 
■named in the will to create and conduct a home for the aged. 
It was urged that the bequest was void as in the Tilden case 
for uncertainty, there being no institution in being to take 
charge of the bequest, also that it was against the statute for- 
bidding estates in perpetuity, and also that it was a disposi- 
tion of over one-half of decedent's estate to a charity. An act 
!iad been passed in 1893 ^o correct the lamentable state of 



406 HAMILTON WARD. 

■the law, as shown in the Tilden case, and Justice Ward ex- 
plained the intention of this act. In his opinion he reviewed 
at length the history of charitable bequests and furnished 
most interesting information on the subject. He also dis- 
cussed the right of the Attorney-General to appear in the ac- 
tion, and gave a historical review of the duties of that officer. 
He decided that the provisions of the will were valid, and 
should be carried out. He was alone in this opinion, how- 
ever, and his associates reversed the judgment of the Special 
Term. 

An appeal was thereafter taken to the Court of Appeals 
and Justice Ward's opinion was sustained in its entirety. 
The case is reported on appeal in Volume i6i of the New 
York Reports, at page 122, and Justice Ward's opinion will 
compare most favorably with the prevailing opinion in the 
upper Court written by Chief Judge Parker. 

Some time after Mr. Ward's death several of his opin- 
ions, written during the month of December, 1898, were 
adopted by the Court, and this was true of the last opinion 
written by him, which was prepared on the last day of his 
life. 

It was a negligence case of Twist vs. The City of Roch- 
ester, reported in 37 Appellate Division, page 307. 

The death of Justice Green, which had occurred in 
October, 1898, was partially from overwork. He was found 
dead in his chair with his newspaper in his hand, and this sad 
event greatly increased the duties of the other Judges, as 
JusticeGreen's cases were distributed among them ; and it is 
a singular circumstance that Justice Follett, a third member 
of the Court, dropped dead in his garden in the following 
July. The work of the Court had run up to seven or eight 
hundred cases yearly; each Justice wrote from fifty to 
seventy-five opinions; in one-third of the cases so written 
there was a dissent. Justice Ward dissented much more than 
any other member of the Court, and probably more than 
any other Justice in the State. However, as has been seen 
in the important cases of Strobel vs. The Kerr Salt Works 
Company and Allen vs. Stevens, his dissents were sustained 
by the Court of Appeals. 



DECISIONS ON THE APPELLATE COURT. 407 

His health had never been better than during the year 
1898. Robust, yet not portly, his eyes were clear, his step 
was quick, his voice was hearty. He took pride in his work 
and had begun to acquire a competency for his old age. He 
assisted his wife in her charitable and social enterprises and 
his older son in his work in Buffalo. Occasionally he drove 
about the county to visit with some old political associate 
and he seemed happy and contented. 

In July, 1898, his older son abandoned his position as 
Assistant District Attorney and was commissioned a Captain 
in the 202nd N. Y. V. I., recruited for the war with Spain. 
This displeased the Judge at first, but after visiting his son 
in camp he grew more reconciled to the situation. As soon 
as the peace protocul was signed he endeavored to have the 
regiment mustered out, but owing to the opposition of in" 
terested parties in the War Department, he was unable to 
accomplish it. 

The Hon. Rowland B. Mahany, a member of Congress 
residing in Buffalo, w^as considerably annoyed by counter 
applications from members of the regiment desiring to be 
retained, and mustered out, and finally published a statement 
which appeared in the Buffalo Evening News of September 
15th, in which he said that the position of the men of the 
202nd Regiment was in no wise similar to that of the 65th 
Regiment, which had been ordered out at the first call, been 
sent to Camp Alger, and from there returned to Buffalo in 
the month of October. He further stated that the men of 
the 202nd Regiment enlisted for garrison duty after peace 
negotiations had begun, and that they must expect to per- 
form that garrison duty. 

This touched Mr. Ward to the quick, and he according- 
ly prepared the following letter : 

Belmont, N. Y., Sept. 16, 1898. 
To the Editor of the Buffalo Evening News. 

My dear Sir: — I see by the issue of your paper of Sept. 15, 1898. 
that the Hon. Rowland B. Mahany, a member of Congress from Buf- 
falo, has submitted to an interview regarding the 202nd Regiment of 
New York Volunteers that were recruited in Buffalo and In other parts 



408 HAMILTON WARD. 

of Western New York. The statement in the interview bears quota- 
tion marks and I assume was the deliberate statement of the honor- 
able gentleman. 

I have read that statement with surprise. The insinuation of 
this interview, if not its direct charge, is that the 202nd Regiment en- 
listed at the close of the war and when peace was apparent, for garri- 
son duty, not expecting service in the field, and they, consequently, 
should be held in the service to perform their contract with the Gov- 
ernment; that their position is very different from that of the 65th 
Regiment, which volunteered from motives of patriotism and to fight. 

The men of the 202nd are in service a long distance from their 
homes and their patriotism is belittled if not assailed by a dis- 
tinguished member of CJongress, and while reluctant to appear in a 
newspaper controversy, I shall venture to remonstrate against the In- 
justice of this charge in the absence of any better defender for' the 
regiment. 

Quite a number of the men who enlisted in this regiment I have 
the honor to know, as they are from my county. I am also acquainted 
with the regimental officers of the regiment and with a number of its 
company officers. I was present when the regiment left Buffalo; have 
a sou in that regiment and have visited Camp Black, and I think I un- 
derstand the motives of the officers and men of that regiment in enter- 
ing the service. 

The member of Congress in his irritation at some ill-judged and 
perhaps unjust newspaper communications in regard to his action In 
retaining this regiment in the service has done great injustice to its 
members. 

The war was not over when the 202nd marched away; peace was 
not assured; there was no official announcement from the President 
or the War Department, as far as I have observed, that peace negotia- 
tions were in progress. It was reported on apparently good authority 
that there were two hundred thousand Spanish soldiers in Cuba uncon- 
quered. Spain was insisting that Spanish honor could not submit to 
the surrender of Cuba. The diseases of a tropical climate were begin- 
ning their deadly work upon our army in Cuba. No one could forsee the 
number of men that would be necessary to carry the nation through 
the war then in existence. The Government had called for seventy- 
five thousand more men, and that call was not filled and the 202nd en- 
listed under that call. It was true that the Spanish fleet In the West 
Indian waters had been annihilated, but there still existed a formidable 
fleet at the command of Spain. Differences had arisen between the 
insurgents in Cuba and our commanders and apprehensions existed 



LETTER DEFENDING THE 202ND REGIMENT. 409 

that we might have to fight these insurgents as well as the Spanish 
soldiers. 

While Dewey's great victory had occurred in the Philippines, 
we held them by but a slender thread. The position of the insurgents 
there was aggressive and doubtful. We could place but little depend- 
ence upon them, and the German warships were prowling about the 
island and covertly assisting the Spanish troops there In a way to 
make war with Germany possible if not probable, and our Government 
was hurrying more men and vessels on to the Philippines to meet 
emergencies. It cannot, therefore, be said that this regiment was not 
enlisted for the war. Some of them left valuable positions in civil 
life; others left important business matters requiring their attention. 
Most of them left comfortable homes, many of them having families 
depending upon them. All at pecuniary sacrifices and discomforts, and 
it is absurd to say that these sacrifices were made for the purpose of 
entering a soldier's life in time of peace and be subjected to all the 
dangers, discomforts and weariness of camp and army life. 

I am sure that the brave and generous members of the 65th 
Regiment, who have earned all of the honors that they are receiving, 
will not approve of being, themselves, exalted by the disparagment of 
the other Buffalo regiment. The dangers of army life even without 
fighting has been well illustrated in the experience of the 65th. Our 
hearts have been saddened by its long and terrible death roll from dis- 
ease contracted in fever infected camps. Almost every paper from 
Buffalo which I have lately seen is recording the death of some hero of 
that regiment. 

Men who enter the army, although they see no active service In 
the field, encounter often an enemy more terrible and fatal than Span- 
ish bullets, in the exposed camp; in the night dews with only the poor 
protection of the tent where the enemy steals in from the malarial 
waters, the swamps and fever infected places, and the soldier suc- 
cumbs to death not upon the field of glory and battle where he would 
like to die for 

"There is something of pride in the perilous hour 
What e'er be the shape in which death may lower; 
For fame is there to say who bleeds 
And honor's eye on daring deeds." 

But he dies in silence and perhaps far away from home and 
kindred; he is as much of a hero as though he died upon the field. 

I believe that the regimental and company officers of the 202nd 
Regiment have so far done their whole duty. No one can accuse any of 



410 HAMILTON WARD. 

them of a want of patriotism in entering the service. The regiment 
has been brought to a high state of perfection and discipline. It Is 
concededly one of the best in the service. 

It is a fact well known that many of the officers and men of this 
regiment were anxious to enter the service when the war commenced, 
but for various reasons were unable to do so. 

The people of the United States responded with singlar unanim- 
ity to the call of the country in this war. All who contributed to the 
country's aid, whether in the field or the hospital or by contributions 
to the health and comfort of the soldiers; from the general command- 
ing to the hospital nurse, and the mother who knit the stockings for her 
volunteer boy to take upon his perilous work deserve the credit due 
to their several acts, and there should be no jealous discrimination as 
between the people who have thus served their country 

HAMILTON WARD. 

This was not published, for Mr. Mahany getting wind of 
it wired Judge Ward's elder son saying that the statement 
would defeat him if published, and offering to withdraw his 
objectionable remarks, which he subsequently did, although 
not as fully as was anticipated. Mr. Ward, after hearing 
from his son and at the request of Mr. E. H. Butler and 
others, finally withdrew his letter. It is published here as it 
was one of his last utterances prepared for the public eye, 
and because its tone was most characteristic of his generous 
and kindly heart. 



CHAPTER X. 
His DeatK. 

December 27th, 1898, was a busy day for Justice Ward. 
He was anxious to finish his opinions in cases which had 
been argued at the last term, in order that he might have a 
little leisure before the convening of the Court for the Janu- 
ary term. 

The holidays had not passed as pleasantly as usual, be- 
cause for the first time the family circle was broken, the elder 
son being absent in Cuba with his regiment, and most of the 
time had been devoted by the Judge to work. However, on 
the next day he had planned to have his old friends, Mr. and 
Mrs. William F. Jones, of Wellsville, dine with him, and so 
working busily all of the 27th he finished his last case about 
five o'clock. He dined heartily at six and retired at an early 
hour. In the night, about three A. M., he called his wife 
and son, complained of being in great pain, lay down on his 
bed and in an instant passed away. He had frequently ex- 
pressed the wish that his death might be in such a manner. 

The physicians, who were called as soon as possible, ex- 
pressed some doubt as to the cause of death, but generally 
agreed that it was heart failure. Twice before in his life he 
had had attacks of vertigo, which resembled fainting fits, and 
the attack which produced his death was doubtless of this 
character. 

The funeral was held January 4th, at the house, having 
been delayed to enable the elder son to arrive from Cuba, 
and the services were conducted by the Rev. F. W. Beecher 
and F. La Grange Smith, of the Episcopal Church. In 
place of a sermon was read one verse of a poem of James J. 
Clark, which was found opened and marked in Mr. Ward's 
room after his death. 

The volume of poems was presented to Mr. Ward by 
the author. 

The body was deposited in the receiving vault in the 
cemetery. It was removed in the spring to the family vault, 



412 HAMILTON WARD. 

which was constructed on a knoll in the cemetery, to the 
summit of which Mr. Ward had been for years accustomed 
to stroll, and gaze over the village below him. 

Hundreds of friends sent letters and telegrams of con- 
dolence, and the press made much comment. The local 
paper, the Belmont Despatch, said : 

"Hon. Hamilton Ward, Justice of the Supreme Court, 
and Allegany's most distinguished citizen, died at his home 
in this village at 3 130 o'clock Wednesday morning. On the 
afternoon of the previous day he had been working, as usual 
while in Belmont, with his stenographer, Mr. Eklyn Rey- 
nolds, and though having been recently burdened by a great 
amount of judicial labor, owing to the sudden death of Jus- 
tice Manley C. Greene, he seemed in excellent health, and re- 
tired early Tuesday night, feeling as well as ever. At about 
three o'clock he awakened Mrs. Ward and his son, John 
C. Ward, who is home on vacation from the N. Y. Theologi- 
cal Seminary, and complained of serious pains in his heart. 
A doctor was immediately summoned, but before his arrival 
the heart had ceased to beat, and the Judge had passed the 
river. He had gone at the full meridan of intellectual great- 
ness, wnth all his physical and mental powers intact. The 
step from active life to the quiet mystery of death had been 
so unlookcd for, so undreamed of, that the reality of that 
dreary early morning seemed impossible to Mrs. Ward until 
the said truth was brought forcibly to her mind by a consul- 
tation of physicians. 

Hamilton Ward was born at Salisbury, Herkimer 
County, July 3, 1829. and had all but rounded his allotted 
three score years and ten when the sudden summons of the 
river boatman unexpectedly called him to the other side. 
His was an eminently successful career. Most of the readers 
of this paper knew Judge Ward better than the writer; knew 
him personally in sorrow and joy, in business and pleasure ; 
you knew him as Edward Everett knew Daniel Webster as 
"a man with perhaps some of the human faults, of a lofty 
spirit, a genial temperament, an open hand and a warm 
heart, with an aspiring eye to the high objects of political 
ambition, but with an honest pride of capacity equal to what- 



HIS DEATH. 413 

ever station he sought, and with a consciousness that he 
should reilect back whatever honor it conferred." But the 
writer knew him as many another young man has known 
him, as a w^arm-hearted counsellor, who seemed personally 
interested in his welfare out of pure good nature. The 
burden of his often repeated advice was industry. Work 
and lots of it. indefatigable effort, but always with recreation 
after the labor. His own life was an inspiring example of 
this precept. He was a prodigious, tireless worker, yet a 
genial, companionable man to a very marked degree. 

It was never necessary for Judge Ward to consult a 
memorandum book before he spoke to a man. He cordially 
greeted everybody, and that one of the most warmly with 
whom he had the last political battle. If he was worsted he 
was the first to compliment his adversary upon his victory, 
and if he was himself the victor he doubly disarmed his 
enemy by the generosity of his conduct. He combined in 
a rare degree the talents of great energy and extreme gen- 
iality. These w^ere the secrets of his power. * * * * 

A more profound sorrow has never been known in this 
community than that which is now upon us. The courteous, 
kindly judge wall ne\'er again chat in his wonted genial way 
with the children upon the street, or relate his witty anec- 
dotes to a crowd of young attorneys, laughing in such a 
hearty fashion that his age seemed less by a score than that 
of most men of fortyfive. He was a great companion, and 
he died as he lived, happy and courageous. His thousand 
genial anecdotes will live on the tongues of men to an old 
and honored age and be heard in goodly company fully as 
long as his learned legal opinions hold place in their everlast- 
ing law books. In politics he was a dashing fighter, a dar- 
ing combatant, but above all active, adriot. painstaking and 
perfectly tireless. He had a great capacity for political de- 
tail. Fle never really harbored a political enmity, and he 
was closer to the common people of this county than any 
great politician who ever lived within its borders. He really 
loved the Republican party and thoroughly believed in it. 
Yet manv of his best friends were Democrats. It is trulv re- 



414 HAMILTON WARD. 

lated by E. W. Chamberlain that the Judge's own father be- 
came a Democrat after the disruption of the Whig party and 
refused to vote for his son in his first contest for Congress, 
The old gentleman was living here in Belmont at the time. 
The young lawyer laughed good naturedly about it, and in 
after years added the incident to his stock of entertaining 
stories. 

The personality of Judge Ward was an intensely pic- 
turesque one and his loss at this time is irreparable. Retiring 
from the bench next year he might have had leisure in Alle- 
gany to counsel friends, and influence public and party plans, 
and his mature judgment and ripe experience would have 
been invaluable to society. But he has departed mourned 
by the entire State, esteemed in the nation, honored by 
bench and bar, and we humbly submit to the omnipotent de- 
cree of an all-wise Providence. 

(From Judge Norton and Mr. Elba Reynolds.) 
In very kind response to a request from The Despatch 
made to several prominent Alleganians, for brief personal 
reminiscences of Justice Ward, Judge Norton and Mr. Elba 
Reynolds responded hastily as follows. Their words will be 
read with great interest : 

"My first acquaintance with Judge Ward dates back to 
the time when as a small boy attending the district school in 
Belmont, I used to meet him while on his morning walks. 
He always had a pleasant greeting for me and seemed to 
take a lively interest in my growth and welfare. Years after- 
wards when he was about closing his Congressional career, 
I became a student in his office, and whenever he had a spare 
day or two we spent our time together in the back room of 
the ofifice, I reading the elementary law books to him, he list- 
ening attentively and making comments as the reading pro- 
gressed. Whenever he had a case in Court, his first w^ork 
would be to very thoroughly prepare it for trial. His wit- 
nesses were always seen and their testimony arranged so as 
to be brought out efifectively and to the best advantage. 
His pleadings were usually somewhat verbose, and he fre- 
quently said to me it is better to have too much than too lit- 



INTERVIEWS WITH FRIENDS. 415 

tie in your papers. He always instructed his students to 
make a most careful preparation upon the law in the case, 
frequently cautioning them that if they were beaten upon the 
facts it was not their fault, but if they were beaten upon the 
law they alone w^ere to blame, and many of his characteris- 
tics were deeply impressed upon the numerous students who 
at various times graduated from his office, and for whom he 
always had a kindly feeling, calling them his boys, and in 
many ways the intimate relations of instructor and student 
continued during his whole lifetime. 

In the Greeley campaign of 1872 Judge Ward for some- 
time was quite strongly inclined to support Greeley, but 
finally concluded to take the stump for the Republican 
ticket, taking me with him to initiate me into the mysteries 
of campaign speaking, which he did with many useful sug- 
gestion and words of encouragement. His political work 
was largely done in secret and I have many times ridden 
with him over the hills and through valleys of Allegany in 
the night time on political missions while I was a student in 
his office. He had unusual powers of organization and lead- 
ership, was the possessor of great energy and perseverance, 
and much of his success can be attributed to his untiring in- 
dustry. In political matters as well as in the practice of his 
profession, he was an aggressive fighter, with a vigorous 
power of expression and positive convictions upon every 
subject, but companionable and genial, with a rare power for 
placating his enenu'es. In all the public positions which he 
occupied he did his duty fearlessly and brought to its dis- 
charge the same vigor and energy which he always mani- 
fested in his private affairs. His public career is too well 
known to the people of Western New York to require com- 
ment here, and there are many phases of his personal life 
which are familiar to people in this vicinity. Personally he 
was universally liked, and the animosities which follow sharp 
contro^'ersies in politics and the practice of law were soon 
lost in the amenities of social life. 

He often gave expression to the warm attachment he 
entertained for Allegany County, and frequently commented 
upon the lovalty of its people to him in all his ambitions. 



416 HAMILTON WARD. 

He cherished a deep affection for them and loved the asso- 
ciations commenced in his early manhood and so long con- 
tinued throughout a useful, honorable and successful career. 

S. M. NORTON." 

''Hon. Hamilton Ward is dead. And as I stand beside 
all that is mortal of one I knew so well, my mind goes back 
over the twenty-five years of close business and social life 
together, and from my knowledge of the man it is certain 
that the brightest legal mind of this section has gone out 
forever. Coming to Mr. Ward when but a boy, and remain- 
ing with him through all the ups and downs of life for a quar- 
ter of a century, I had learned to know him as a friend and 
father, for he was ever ready to whisper wise counsels and to 
extend his strong arm to assist one asking his help. Hamil- 
ton W^ard was a man of extraordinary brain power and an 
untiring working, with him whatever was worth doing at 
all, must be done well, and through all my acquaintance with 
him, he strictly adhered to this rule, and back in the eighties 
for years it was his common practice to work for sixteen 
hours of the twenty-four. He particuarly excelled in apply- 
ing case law to the question under consideration. This, 
coupled with his honesty of purpose and thorough, unceas- 
ing labors, gave him his great success as a lawyer and jurist. 

Judge Ward had many noble elements that make up a 
great and good man, with but few of the frailities of Hfe, 
many less than the great majority of us, and his life will bear 
the closest scrutiny of time, for many of his charities and 
kindnesses were covered, but whatever faults he had were »s 
an open book. And in his death the deserving multitude 
have lost a steadfast friend, the Allegany County Bar its 
brightest light, the Judiciary an honest and able Judge, the 
County of Allegany its most distinguished citizen, and the 
village of Belmont has sustained an irreparable loss. 

ELBA REYNOLDS." 

The Brooklyn Eagle, edited by his old friend, St. Clair 
McKelway, after referring to the public positions held by 
Justice Ward, said : 



INTERVIEWS WITH FRIENDS. 417 

This is the tabular record of the busy life of a singular, 
original, resolute and attractive public man. Dead at 69 
and beginning public service in 1856, when he was 27 years 
of age, he was, between those years, active in politics, often 
in office and was always peculiarly distinguished for the prin- 
ciple of gratitude and for the manly friendships which he sus- 
tained in both parties. He was not a great man, a great 
lawyer or a great judge, but he was a man of respectable 
ability, of much practical common sense, of undoubted force 
of character, and he will be long remembered for his sturdy 
independence, personal courage and hearty ways by those 
who knew him well. 

Without attempting to give any account of his life, one 
can hardly touch his name without interesting reminiscences 
yielding to the slightest pressure. He was in Congress, for 
instance, in the war time, and he had much to do with recon- 
struction legislation. He sought to temper it with clem- 
ency, and, indeed, with humanity. His views on finance 
were sound in an unsound time. He was against the green- 
backs, and was true to the gold standard, to which New 
York State has always been true, when there were personal 
unpopularity and political danger in taking such a stand. 
He was a sincere friend of Roscoe Conkling and of Thomas 
C. Piatt, because both of them had been good to him, and 
because he admired them, believed in them and was grateful 
to them. As Attorney-General of the State, he acceptably 
performed the ordinary duties of the office, and addressed 
himself to any extraordinary duties in it which came up with 
a resolution and a gallantry that were quite notable, and 
which tempered or extenuated many of his errors in their 
treatment. 

Long ago he had cause to be interested in the proposi- 
tion that persons in interest in suits of a socially delicate 
quality should have a right to testify. Perhaps clients of 
his were concerned in the passage of a law to that effect. 
He came to Albany legitimately to promote a bill of that 
character before the Assembly. He discovered that a dry. 
prosy, learned and pedagogical sort of Democrat named 
William B. Ruggles, whom he had never known, was sup- 



418 HAMILTON WARD. 

porting the measure upon principle with learning, with logic 
and with success in the Assembly, Hamilton Ward took 
notes in his memory, but said nothing. Many years after- 
ward, when he became Attorney-General, he found that 
William B. Ruggles had been Attorney-General Schoon- 
maker's first assistant, and he asked Mr. Ruggles, although 
a Democrat, to continue in the place under him. The 
amount of pressure from Cornell, Conkling, perhaps Mr. 
Piatt and others which Hamilton Ward withstood in this 
case had not been exceeded in the annals of Republican re- 
sistance at that time. All the language which he used in 
adhering to his purpose was not fit to print, but it was in the 
highest degree effective, and in the strongest sense char- 
acteristic. It was also successful. 

While still Attorney-General, he intervened in a re- 
markable manner in a murder trial in Albany. A lawyer 
had been killed by a client. The lawyer was the leading de- 
fender of persons accused of crime in Albany County. The 
client who killed him was a one-armed veteran of the war 
between the States, named Hughes, for whom the lawyer 
had collected arrears of pension amounting to about $1,300. 
In settling with the client, the lawyer, it was alleged, de- 
manded about $1,100 for expenses, leaving a little over $200 
for the soldier. A clasp knife made its appearance in a 
scuffle which ensued, and the one-armed man slew the law- 
yer in his office. When trial came near, the District Attor- 
ney of Albany County was surprised by a letter from the 
Attorney-General, in which the latter requested opportunity 
to join in the prosecution on the ground, as naively stated by 
himself: "Down in Allegany County they do say I'm hell 
on murder cases." After Mr. Ward summed up the case, 
the jury brought in a verdict in the second degree against 
the defendant, which carried with it a life sentence. 

The trial was held in the Assembly Chamber of the old 
Capitol. The new Capitol was occupied by the Legislature, 
and the demolition of the old was under way, but was 
suspended because the County Courthouse had been burned 
down. When the defendant was about to be sentenced, he 
rose and thanked the court "for an impartial trial," his law- 



PRESS COMMENT. 419 

yer for "a faithful defense," the Attorney-General "for a con- 
siderate prosecution, ' and closing said: "And now within 
this room, more accustomed to the sound of parliamentary 
than of judicial eloquence, I move the previous question and 
await my sentence!" Mr. Ward saw that that man was 
made bookkeeper in Dannemora Prison, where he died in 
comfort, seven years afterward, happier and more contented 
as a convict than he had ever been as a tramp. 

When David B. Hill was Governor, the Executive Man- 
sion was made a fit habitation for the chief magistrates of the 
State. Money was not spared, and a Republican committee 
of the Assembly thought there was political capital in a re- 
port censuring the expenditure. A Republican member 
from Mr, Ward's county held the balance of power on the 
committee, and told him that he thought the Governor had 
done right, and felt he should sustain him, though the press- 
ure on him to join in an adverse report was very great. 
Hamilton Ward literally ordered him to stand by the Gov- 
ernor on the matter in question to the last, and he did so. 

Mr. Ward and Gov. Hill were not acquainted with one 
another then, there is reason to believe, but the Governor 
was a grateful and remembering man, and he appointed not 
a Democrat, but Hamilton Ward himself to the Supreme 
Court, when a vacancy occurred in the judicial district in 
which Mr. Ward lived. As already said, Judge Ward re- 
mained upon the bench until his death, this morning, and he 
owed his place there to his superiority to rise above partisan 
opportunity in the interest of justice to a Democratic oppon- 
ent, who made the Executive Mansion commensurate with 
the needs and dignity of a residence for the chief officer of 
the Empire State. 

Hamilton Ward's life was full of instances of this sort. 
He was a most interesting conversationalist, or rather 
monologist, a sturdy, intrepid, sunny and happy man, and 
those who knew him w^ell can recall few more typically 
American products in character, in resolution and in hearti- 
ness than he was. He fell far below greatness, but he never 
fell below manhood, and many a possibly better man was 
less liked and will be sooner forgotten. 



420 HAMILTON WARD. 

Courts in Buffalo and Rochester immediately adjourned 
upon the announcement of his death, and the Express of 
December 29th says : 

JUDGE WARD DEAD. 

The late Hamilton Ward had a long, varied and active 
career in public life. He was singularly successful in passing 
from one stage of it to another. His abiHties were far above 
the ordinary. 

His death leaves another vacancy in the Appellate Di- 
vision for this department — the second within a few months. 
Judicial vacancies are fairly showering down upon the am- 
bitious lawyers of the Eighth Judicial District." 

The Belmont Courier of January ist said: 

HAMILTON WARD. 

Death came to Judge Hamilton Ward in the early twi- 
light of a busy, eventful, useful life. The goal of rest and 
self-satisfied contentment was near at hand. Sharp, sudden 
and unexpected was the blow which has brought grief to a 
home and deep sorrow to this community. 

Not a blemish marks his public career. His brilliance 
brought him great opportunities, which he accepted and his 
services to the people stand an ineffaceable monument to his 
memory. 

In his home he was kind and indulgent. Between him 
and his sons, Captain Ward and John C. Ward, there was a 
band of comradeship rarely seen between father and sons. It 
was not easy to realize that Justice Ward was close to three 
score and ten years old. He had all the vivacity and en- 
thusiasm of a young man, and he had not allowed himself to 
forget in his busy life that young men have dreams and am- 
bitions. * * * * 

The Buffalo News of January 4th said : 

A MAN OF RARE FORCE. 

The courts of Erie County are closed today, and our 
bench and bar are joining with the judges and lawyers of 



PRESS COMMENT. 421 

Allegany County in paying the last honors to Hamilton 
Ward, Justice of the Supreme Court, at his home at Bel- 
mont. The tribute is a fitting one — not merely formal but 
suitable as a recognition of the merits of a man of great 
force of character. 

For more than a generation Hamilton Ward was known 
throughout the State as one of the leaders in public afifairs 
in his section. He was even up to his death an embodiment 
of the characteristic element of our public life. He com- 
bined a ready insight into affairs with a shrewdness and 
directness of method in political tactics that kept him ever at 
the front until his elevation to the bench. His career as a 
member of the Supreme Court was one of exceptional suc- 
cess and honor. His w^ork was thorough and he had the 
grasp of principle as well as of details which gives success in 
the law as well as in political life. The quick perception of 
the main issue, which is called common sense in the unpro- 
fessional affairs of life, was of service here. A little of the 
practical philosophy of common life is as valuable an ac- 
quisition to a judge as to a layman. It helps greatly in the 
determination of questions of equity as w^ell as of the appli- 
cation of law to conduct. Judge Ward had this practical 
philosophy. It was fundamental with him. It was a part of 
his equipment always in use. It helped to make him popu- 
lar in politics and to win him success in the administration 
of the law. 

A man of rare force and full of resources was Hamilton 
Ward. He had his enemies as all such men have, but he 
had his friends also, as he deserved. 

The funeral is best described in the Belmont Despatch 
of January 6th. 

"In addition to the large number of prominent Alle- 
ganians present, a hundred distinguished Western New 
Yorkers gathered here Wednesday morning to attend the 
funeral of the late Justice Hamilton Ward. It was observed 
at the homestead on Washington Street at 1 1 o'clock, and 
the large house was so crowded that very many were unable 
to pass through and out again to the porches and yard. 



422 HAMILTON WARD. 

The disagreeable atmospheric conditions could not deter 
this concourse of people from paying honor to the late Jus- 
tice, whom all the citizens of this county loved as a close and 
personal friend. 

The funeral services were begun at 11.15 sharp by the 
ofliciating clergyman, Rev. F. W. Beecher of St. John 
Episcopal Church at Wellsville. He was assisted by Rev. 
F. LaGrange Smith, the bright young rector of Judge 
Ward's own church, St. Philips, of this place. The services 
were from the Episcopal burial ritual with three selections 
from a choir composed of Miss Bertha Bradt, Miss Kathryn 
Clark, Miss Anna Hatch, Miss Ella Sortore, Warren Gor- 
ton, W. P. Clark and Floyd Sortore, with Mrs. John Bradt 
accompanist. The selections were "Lead Kindly Light," 
"Peace, Perfect eace," and "One Sweetly Solemn Thought." 
The floral offerings were very beautiful. The handsome 
casket was decked with beautiful cut flowers. 

Seats had been reserved in the residence for the emin- 
ent men expected from Buffalo by special train, which left 
there at 8.04 A. M. It reached this place at 10.59 A. M. in 
charge of Erie Passenger Agent H. T. Jaeger and Road- 
master Bowen, included in its party E. H. Butler, editor of 
the Buffalo News ; Justices of the Supreme Court Childs, 
Frank C. Laughlin, Warren B. Hooker and T. C. White, 
County Judge Emery, ex-Senator Van Gorder, Henry Ware 
Sprague, ex-Corporation Counsel Feldman, U. S. District 
Attorney Emory P. Close, Assistant District Attorney Cary. 
Frederick Haller, ex-Senator Laughlin and Irving F. 
Cragen. 

The family were seated in a front room, at the left of 
the hall, apart from others, and the casket was so placed as 
to be in the center of the house, and when the clergymen 
stood near it to read the service they could be easily seen 
from the several rooms. With the family were : Mrs. 
Ward, Hamilton Ward, Jr., who returned on Tuesday from 
Pinar del Rio, Cuba, where he has been in the 202nd Regi- 
ment in the service of his country; John Ward, the second 
son, who was fortunatelv home on vacation from the New 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 423 

York Theological Seminary at the time of his father's death; 
Miss Elizabeth Ward, of New York City, a sister of the 
Judge; Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Chamberlain, of this place; Miss 
Julia Chamberlain, of Waterloo, and Wright Chamberlain, 
of Waterloo, and others. 

Rev, F. W. Beecher, the officiating clergyman, was for 
nearly a quarter of a century an acquaintance and friend of 
Judge Ward, and he spoke very feelingly of his friend, and 
while he proposed not in any way to pronounce a funeral 
oration, or preach a funeral sermon, or even make a funeral 
address, he said his attention had just been called to an inci- 
dent which threw a light on Judge Ward's esthetic side. 
He was a lover of music and poetry. In the Judge's room a 
book had been found by Captain Hamilton Ward, and the 
place marked and the poem emphasized by the pencil of the 
late jurist. Mr. Beecher said this was a true indication of 
an undercurrent of thought that was not evident to a chance 
acquaintance, whom the Judge might have met in political 
or judicial life. And then he read this little poem, which 
was entitled : "The Isles of the By and By." 

"In the balmy Isle where the angels roam 

By the crystal seas of our Father's Home, 

There are forms of grace and of beauty rare 

And the ones we have lost are there. 

We must part in tears when the twilight dies, 

On the far-off hills of our evening skies; 

We shall meet in joy where our dear ones stand 

In the gates of the morning land. 

We shall fall asleep where the autumn grieves 

O'er the fading flowers and the falling leaves 

We shall wake again where the angels sing 

In the bloom of eternal spring." 

These lines are from a poem of James Gowdy Clark, 
whom we all know as a wonderfully sweet singer. He was 
a great admirer of Judge Ward, and the little book of 
"Poetry and Song," from which the above verses were taken 
was the author's authograph copy, and stuck in the back of 



424 HAMILTON WARD. 

it is a personal letter to the Judge, an interesting sentence 
of which goes: "Somehow you are one of the few repre- 
sentative public men that got hold of my heart in the old, 
golden days of Republicanism.'" 

After the choir's last selection the acting bearers, Fred- 
eric H. Church, D. P. Richardson, A. L. Elliott, George H. 
Blackman, Eldyn Reynolds, and B. P. Mapes, bore the 
casket to the funeral car, and were followed by the honorary 
bearers: Justice Adams of Canadaigua, Justice McLennan 
of Syracuse, Justice White of Buffalo, Justice Lambert of 
Fredonia, Justice Spring of Franklinville, Justice Laughlin 
of Buffalo, Justice Childs of Medina, County Judge S. M. 
Norton, ex-County Judge C. A. Farnum, Hon. W. F. Jones 
of Wellsville and C. S. Whitney, Esq., of Belmont. 

The interment was made temporarily in the receiving 
vault at the Belmont cemetery, and the permanent inter- 
ment will probably be in a family mausoleum to be con- 
structed in this village's beautiful cemetery. 

A few of the prominent Alleganians present at the 
funeral were: District Attorney Frederick H. Church, 
Hon. Frank B. Church, Hon. O. A. Fuller, Captain George 
Blackman, Hon. W. F. Jones, John B. Jones, Mr. and Mrs. 

E. B. Hall, Mrs. A. S. Brown, Hon. C. A. Farnum, Hon. 
Sumner Baldwin, John McEwen, W. J. Richardson, William 
Duke, Grant Duke, Oak Duke, Frank Fisher, Willet L. 
Ward, Homer Elliott, E. W. Barnes, E. A. Childs and Dr. 

F. T. Coyle of Wellsville ; Judge S .M. Norton, Captain J. 
E. Rice, A. Miner Wellman, Ben J. Rice, A. L. Elliott, H. S. 
Corbin, James T. Ward, T. J. Rose and F. R. Utter of 
Friendship : Hon. D. P. Richardson, Frank Sullivan Smith 
and M. S. Blair of Angelica. Among others present w^ere : 
Hon. Charles S. Gary, Judge Kruse and James Waring of 
Olean; De Merville Page and L W. Near of Hornellsville; 
Dr. Fred Lewis of Buffalo, Mrs. Murray of Waterloo, and 
District Attorney Charles Johnson of Seneca Falls. From 
Cuba there w^ere Walter Renwick and John Leggett, and 
from Andover Crayton Early, and Ransom Richardson of 
Fillmore was present. 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 425 

At a meeting of the Allegany County Bar Association a 
committee of ex-Judge Harlan J. Swift, Judge Norton and 
ex-Judge Farnum was named to draft resolutions on the 
death of Judge Ward and present them to the family. 

Immediately after the funeral of Judge Ward, the 
judges and members of the bar of the Eighth Judicial Dis- 
trict met at the Court House and adopted the following: 

**We, members of the judiciary and bar of the Eighth 
Judicial District of the State of New York, meeting at the 
Court House in Belmont, in the County of Allegany, on the 
4th day of January, 1898, after attending the last funeral 
rites of the Honorable Hamilton Ward, one of the Justices 
of the Supreme Court, feel that it is fitting that we should 
publicly express our humble tribute to one of our members. 

"We recognize the important service he has rendered 
the public during his active life of nearly half a century as 
District Attorne}'^ of Allegany County, member of the 
National Legislature during the period immediately follow- 
ing the close of our civil war and the accomplishment of re- 
construction, as Attorney-General of the State, and lastly in 
the fulfillment of a busy life as one of the Justices of the 
Supreme Court, where he so well earned his reputation for 
studious consideration of the questions falling to him for de- 
termination. 

"We grieve Avith the sorrowing family and extend to 
them our deepest sympathy in their affliction ; we feel that 
the Judiciary has lost one of its most honored and distin- 
guished members." 

Judge Lambert, then presiding at a term of Supreme 
Court in Belmont, after the presentation of the foregoing 
directed the clerk to spread the same upon the minutes. 

Action on his death was taken by the Rochester Bar 
Association, and a memorial was proposed by his associates 
at the Appellate Division. 

The representatives of the bar appeared at the opening 
of the Court on January 17th. and the proceedings are set 
forth in a printed pamphlet as follows : 

At the opening of the present term of the Appellate Di- 



426 HAMILTON WARD. 

vision Presiding Justice Hardin spoke briefly of the death of 
Associate Justice Ward, as follows : 

"On the twenty-eighth day of December last, at his 
home in Belmont, Judge Ward, an esteemed and valued as- 
ssociate of this court, fell into that sleep that knows no wak- 
ing. The funeral took place at his residence on the fourth 
day of January. It was attended by his colleagues of the 
Eighth District and by the members of the bar, largely in 
that vicinity. Circumstances were such that I was not able 
to attend the burial services. However, the court was repre- 
sented by Judges Adams and McLennan, who witnessed the 
last ceremonies that were performed over the remains of our 
departed brother, 

"Owing to the circumstance that Judge Adams was 
present at the funeral, and the further circumstance that he 
had longer association with the deceased, he has kindly con- 
sented to prepare the testimonial which this court deems fit 
and proper to make respecting our departed brother, which 
he will now present." 

Judge Adams read the memorial, after which Hon. 
George Raines, presenting the memorial of the Rochester 
Bar Association, said: 

"If the court please, I have been deputed as the chair- 
man of a committee to present to this court the resolutions 
adopted at a meeting of the Rochester Bar Association, of 
which Hon. Walter S. Hubbell was chairman, touching the 
death of your Associate Justice Ward." 

The resolutions were then read. 

"These resolutions so fully express the sentiments of 
our Rochester Bar," he continued, 'towards the late asso- 
ciate justice of this court, that it is idle to add words which 
might be appropriate, were there not a written record made 
of his life. 

"Personal relations arising nearly thirty years since be- 
tween the deceased justice and myself have grown with each 
year nearer and nearer. I can only add to these resolutions 
my own sense of personal bereavement in the loss which this 
bench and community has sustained." 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 427 

The presiding justice then ordered that the testimonial 
in behalf of the court and the resokitions of the Rochester 
Bar Association would be entered in the records of the 
court, and that a copy thereof be sent to the family of the 
late judge. 

MEMORIAL OF MR. JUSTICE WARD. 

For the second time within the short period of three 
months death has invaded our midst and taken from this 
court one of its honored members. But a few weeks since 
we were called upon to mourn the loss of our youngest 
brother, stricken in the very vigor of his manhood, suddenly, 
without a moment's warning; and to-day the chair lately 
occupied by the eldest member of the court has become 
vacant under circumstances strikingly similar to those which 
terminated the earthly career of our late associate, Justice 
Green. 

Mr. Justice Ward occupied a seat upon the bench of this 
court from its organization in January, 1896, down to the 
date of his death, during which time he brought to the dis- 
charge of the arduous and manifold duties pertaining to that 
position the experience of a long and active life, a disposition 
to be just and upright in every of^cial deliverance, and a de- 
termination as intense as it was unalterable, to so admin- 
ister the law of the land as that it should prove a shield to 
the oppressed and a sword to the oppressor. 

He was peculiarly a self-made man, having enjoyed but 
limited advantages in early life, but by constant application 
and diligent effort he so fully equipped himself for life's 
struggle that he soon outstripped his more fortunate com- 
petitors and, surmounting every obstacle, ultimately won his 
way to honorable distinction and a moderate fortune. In 
every position which he occupied, whether as District At- 
torney, Attorney-General, Member of Congress or a Justice 
of the Supreme Court, he manifested to a remarkable de- 
gree that rugged good sense which, with him. was a weapon 
far more potent than the subtle refinements of the logician. 



428 HAMILTON WARD. 

and which, wielded in his characteristic fashion, not infre- 
quently enabled him to reach, and to force others to reach, 
satisfactory conclusions without much regard to technicali- 
ties or forms. 

In his personal relations with his associates upon the 
bench Judge Ward was always kindly, courteous and open 
hearted. He was, in every sense of the word, a positive 
man, and, consequently, like most persons of a sanguine 
temperament, he sometimes identified himself so completely 
with the cause he was advocating as to be somewhat im- 
patient of opposition ,and unable for the time being to dis- 
tinguish clearly between honest criticism and personal dis- 
courtesy. But while he was quick to resent anything which 
might be construed into an affront, he was equally alert to 
make suitable apology and reparation when he became con- 
scious that during the heat of a discussion he had been be- 
trayed into the utterance of a word which might possibly 
carry with it a sting. 

Perhaps the trait of character which more strongly and 
more frequently than any other manifested itself in Judge 
Ward was his sympathy for the poor and helpless. No per- 
son in stress of circumstances ever appealed to him in vain. 
His heart opened up involuntarily to the needy, the desti- 
tute and the oppressed, and he was ill at ease until he had 
ministered to their necessities. So immutably was this 
tenderness of all human virtues impressed upon the heart 
of our deceased brother that it was sometimes with the 
greatest difficulty that he could bring himself to dispose of a 
case upon strict legal principles when such a disposition was 
not in accord with his sense of equity and justice; and for 
this reason he often expressed doubt as to his fitness to sit as 
an administrator of the law, pure and simple. 

It is not our purpose, however, to enter at this time 
into any extended analysis of the character of our lamented 
brother, but simply to place upon record our estimate of him 
as an associate and friend, whose sudden departure from our 
midst we shall long deplore, and whose many good qualities 
of mind and heart we shall always cherish. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 429 

RESOLUTION OF THE ROCHESTER BAR. 

The Rochester Bar Association meets a second time 
within a few months on account of the sudden death of a 
justice of our department of the Appellate Division of the 
Supreme Court. 

Hamilton Ward has lived a life notably busy and full of 
honor. As one of the justices of our Appellate Division, we 
have known him best. He was appointed by the Governor 
of the State to that court at its organization, and during the 
past three years of its existence he has taken a conspicuous 
part in most of its decisions. His opinions, remarkable for 
the research and painstaking care necessary in their produc- 
tion, form no small part of the thirty-four volumes compris- 
ing the reports of the Appellate Division of the Supreme 
Court, and furnish an enduring monument to his memory. 

We realize that in the presence of death words are 
wholly inadequate, and we can only tender to his family and 
to his colleagues on the bench this expression of our sym- 
pathy in their sudden and painful bereavement. 

We move that a copy of this memorial be spread upon 
the records of this association, and that a committee be ap- 
pointed to present the same to the Appellate Division of his 
department upon the opening day of the next term. 

WALTER S. HUBBELL, 

Chairman. 
WILLIAM L. PLUMB, 

Secretary. 



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